The Assassin of Peace
by TheDan211
Summary: No, it's not dead. Expect a comeback of Dan and Allie in their fight against... Bad things in general. Read me plspls.
1. Meet the Assassin

_DISCLAIMER: The only thing I own here is the cast of characters. And since personalities can't be bought, I'm not even sure if that counts._

"Take it or leave it, moron."

The anger inside me flared to a raging inferno, and I wanted nothing more than to let loose a string of shuriken onto this mage. I held my Meba at place, though; Tilting my head toward the ground and closing my eyes in frustration. I sighed once and looked up again.

"There is no way in all hell that I'm paying you eight and a half million mesos for a single set of Steelies," I said quite calmly, considering the situation.

"Look, you moron, I'm an accomplished Ice and Lightning Archmage," the magic-weaver said, pounding his staff to the ground twice. "These knives sell for like ten mil in some places, I'm doing you a favour."

I lost it then. "Agh! They sell for Seven Million mesos in town, I'm doing you a favour by even looking into this deal!" I exclaimed angrily, wishing to turn around. "The only reason I'm even considering buying these from you is because I don't feel like going back down to El Nath, nor to Orbis; Because I'm out of stars."

Indeed, it was stupid of me to use up the room in my pack with Scrolls and Potions, and even stupider to keep a spare set of Wolbis 'Just in Case'. The grey set of throwing stars was old and dull, and I might as well have been stabbing the Sentinels with a Coconut Knife...

The Mage returned the set of kunai to his own pack. "I should be selling these for Nine Mil, you homo..."

My eye twitched. "Such insults are immature and show so much stupidity that you just lost any chance of a sale," I hissed. "Have a good day sir."

The idiot jumped down from the platform we were using to safely talk, and I had to stop myself from following him. The annoyed shouts of a female bandit below told me that he must have been picking up the supplies and money that these robotic Sentinels often dropped.

Why we loved killing them, nobody was sure. It was a waste of potions and mana indeed, but the occaisional stars that they dropped could make you rich. Well, that and the kind amounts of Experience they gave.

"I missed my chance at getting those damned kunai... Again," I chastized myself silently, sitting on the safe platform and watching the Sentinels near the platform float around aimlessly. I sighed and waited for my mana to fully return, checking my outfit and inventory.

I had plenty of Mana Potions, over 400. I also had 300 White potions; All of which I had found stored under the Bar in Kerning when I went to get my job advancement to Assassin... There was an archer coming when I was going, so I assumed the hidden pots had belonged to him. Of course, if someone is stupid enough to hoarde their expensive items somewhere public, they should assume that they're to be stolen. I had two sets of Kumbis which I used most often(both empty, the plastic containers useless in my bag), a set of of Mokbis which I used whenever those ran out (also empty), a set of Tobis for powerful enemies (there were a few left but they'd run out soon enough), and of course my full set of useless Wolbis.

I also carried several ores and minerals with me. Though they were heavy, most were quite expensive. Often I would sit in town with a list of my ore and mineral inventory, and I'd make an average of forty thousand mesos per hour.

For some reason I had a very well-made Red Guiltain Mage's Hat that nobody seemed to want... It was useless to me, of course. I don't even know why I don't just sell it to a shop, I could get a good thirty thousand from it...

Of course there was my trusted Meba, the claw that took forever to get the materials to make; And was just as worth it. The bronzes, coppers and steels fit together perfectly, providing a great defense up and down my arm. But I bought it mainly for its weaponry capabilities. Anybody who's not an assassin always wonders why we require these glove-like weapons to throw shuriken; At the same time they wonder how we can fit so many as a thousand projectiles without having to stop and reach into our pack to pull another one. The answer is simple: There's a little slot on claws on the backfist where one can insert the stars they wish to use...

But the beauty of the Meba, that which made it so aerodynamic, was that the little insert slot was instead on the side. Unlike the other claws, there were seperate parts for each finger. Between the index finger and the thumb was the insert slot, and the stars not in use moved back inside the claw, up to the forearm. It was spring released, so instead of having to tighten my entire fist (as I did with my old Garnier and my Bronze Igor), I only have to twitch my index finger, as if pulling the trigger of a crossbow, to release a star. I still have to swing my arm, of course, to create momentum to get the star moving with deadly force.

Along with the Meba, I wear a Black Guise, a Silver Black Stealer, Dark Silver Stealer Pants and my signature pair of Pink Whitebottom shoes. The shoes clash horribly with my Black-and-Silver clothing and my light-but-not-pale complexion, but I don't mind terribly. They were free, given to me by a rich man dressed in rags who was pretending to be a beggar. I had offered the man two million mesos and he was so suprised he told me of his little plan to cure boredom (dress up like a poor man and sit around begging while you let your accumulated wounds heal) and sent me off with a special pair of shoes. They were light yet thick, and made it very easy for me to jump around or move about.

I checked my Personal ID Card, a digital 4"x 6" touch-screen database of information. It usually stayed in my pocket, but I took it out to check any changes fairly often. Apparantly someone had lowered my Fame, which was no more than a number that the population decided.

Every day every person with an Experience Level of more than Fifteen was given a new Fame to use as they wished. You could raise or lower anyone's fame with it, and they could do the same to you. Me, I prefered offering it to people who cared about it, or at least careed enough to give me fiver-thousand meso per Fame. Personally, I didn't care what my own was at, though it somehow managed to raise itself by at least 20 over the years... Kind people noticing my Charitable attitude who had nothing else to give.

The ID Card had a digital photo of my face as well as my Calculated Statistics. Those were numbers nobody really understood, which measured Strength and Intelligence as well as Dexterity and even Luck. They weren't terrbily accurately named, of course, for though my Luck was over 90, I had not yet found a person who could tell me where to find a set of Ilbis. That and besides Dexterity (at 68) everything else was under 20. I had 14 Strength and yet I could throw stars for hours; Upon that my Intelligence was merely 5.

Insulting as it was, when I discovered only Mages had Intelligence levels of over 100 (the smart as well as the idiot ones) I've begun to believe that the people in charge are either fools themselves or the system has a large... Quite large... Malfunction.

Come now. With only five Intelligence points and a vocabulary like mine you'd be aggravated by the whole deal as well.

According to the ID Card my Level was at 33, with 66 percent done. After a few training sessions, it would become 34 and then I'd have a chance to change my Abilities.

You see, every traveller with a job has special abilities unique to their jobs: When I was a mere Rogue I used up most of my points with two skills called Nimble Body and Lucky Seven. Every level up, you got 3 points to use, and you sent in those points with your ID card. It sent back a note of information and using that information you were able to do new things.

The skill called Dark Sight allowed me to see any natural shadows, and with my supple body I can slip into those shadows and use them as folds of invisibility. Even if I'm in the middle of fighting a smart enemy, if I use Dark Sight I become completely transparent. It uses a good amount of mana, though, so I don't use it terribly often.

Lucky Seven, though, only used fifteen mana points... It allowed me to speed my body and throw two stars at once. I have to swing my arm incredibly fast, though, so though it weakens my mana each star does more damage to an enemy than it would normally.

Nimble Body was completely different from the rest, which seemed to either slow down time permanently or speed my metabolism... It became easier with every point to sidestep any enemy and throw stars at their backs. Even the Zombie Mushrooms, who never stood still for a second, could never find a way to dodge my shuriken.

Ever since I upgraded myself to an Assassin, though, new skills have become available. One was Critical Throw, which sent a large block of text on certain enemies' weak spots. For example, if one aims under the cap of any mushroom it does far more damage that the main part of the cap or on the body.

Another new skill was Javelin Mastery. Along with information on the advanced mechanics of throwing stars (after reading them and applying it, i flet I could throw so much better), the people in charge sent new containers for each of my stars. It's more space-efficient, so it seems every time I give an Ability Point to Javelin Mastery, I could hold 10 more stars per container.

Presently, I was intrigued by an ability called Haste which allowed me to move faster and jump higher, by showing the essentials of aerodynamics. I follow the directions, finely tuning my mind and meditating if i ever need to drastically boost my metabolism.

...At any rate, my Health points had almost reached their maximum of 1173, and my Mana points were nearly half-full at 317. I stood and took out my Halfmoon Zamadar (a gift from an old Chief Bandit friend) and put away my now-useless Meba, cutting my way through the floating spherical robots on my way back up to Orbis.


	2. Hideval and the Steelies

_DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. But if you, as a peer, want to use someone I created, you gotta ask first, mmkay?_

_Featuring Hideval, a creation of my good friend Karma Duel. Go read his stories if you know what's good for you._

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"Buying Dark Crystal Ores!"

"Trading Fame! I don't Scam people!"

"Level 45 Cleric looking for a Party to train with Jr. Pepes!"

I stepped out of the portal to several cries of other people, looking for adventure or Experience Points. Or just money. This was something nearly everyone did: Jump around a crowded place yelling your prices for certain items or promising whatever to whomever would give you an elusive weapon or such. I did it sometimes, if rarely; Usually when I was looking for a new set of throwing stars or if I find rare equipment that doesn't work well with me. I peeked inside my pack for a second and added my own shout to the rest.

"Selling Over-Average Red Guiltain, accepting offers...!" I yelled half-heartedly, lazily strolling through the marble city. All of Ossyria was beautiful, but if I ever wanted to settle down and buy a house it would be located in Orbis. There was a huge assortment of different people: Fairies, normal humans, soldiers, scientists, beefed men, kids all about, even a large dog everyone called Moppie. An assorted orchestral group played all day in the town square, and personally I've found that their music never seems to get old. Vines grew everywhere, but they were obviously trimmed and controlled. There were floating platforms placed around the higher parts of the city, and though I'm terribly afraid of heights I didn't mind these. Since I've obtained Nimble Body and Haste, I can twist myself around in the air so I land more peacefully.

It's still scary as all hell to slip, though.

Nobody seemed to want the hat, so I sped up my pace to normal. My destination was the General Shop, and after a bit of a walk the smell of Potions mixed with food overwhelmed me. I closed the door behind me, savoring the near-silence. The music could still be heard, through hidden speakers in the shop, but of course I didn't mind that at all. In fact, I decided that once I was done with exchanging supplies I'd wait here for my mana to come back to normal.

I sold the metal shellpieces that Sentinels dropped, and asked that the woman behind the counter refill my weapons' packages. It intrigued me that though they carried large amounts of every throwing star, they were near-impossible to carry. In fact, the most intuitive thing I had ever seen was a high-level Hermit who had asked that the store-owned fill his Pumpkin Basket with Ilbis. It seemed to work fine for him, though he couldn't use a claw to throw them. As we all know, in order to insert the stars or knives into a claw, you need to fit in the plastic case. The spring mechanism holds the small weapons and releases the plastic case, but nobody knows how to insert the stars manually.

So this guy reached into his Pumpkin Basket and had to pull out a star and throw it between his fingers. I'm not sure how that went but fighting in such an old-fashioned manner can't be worth 40 Ilbis...

I didn't really need anything from the store besides the stars, so I walked to the side of the store and sat on the floor near the wall, relaxing. After a few minutes, another guy walked in. He had spiky purple hair and sunglasses, a large intimidating Maple Staff and a long black Robe. He nodded to me and did his biddings with the Shop owner, then sat next to me and began to apply a powder to a long gash on his leg.

"Leatties," he said with a smirk, noticing my gaze. "They're painful little fuzzies."

I snorted, holding a hand to shake his. "Well met, mate. I'm Dan of Kerning."

"Hideval of Ellinia," he replied, shaking my hand and finishing his work. I couldn't help but notice his uncovered hair.

"Oi..." I muttered after a second. "Bychance, you interested in buying a Red Guiltain? I've had this thing for ages, it's overaverage but I've had the worst luck in selling it."

"Eh," he grunted, looking at it uninterestedly. "It'd be good to have for a few levels from now, but I'm only level 36. Anyway, I don't really like wearing Red." He handed it back and I couldn't help but yelp out a "GAH!" He laughed and shrugged.

"I swear, I'm just gonna sell it for 30,000 mesos," I said dryly.

"Don't go and do that, mate," Hideval said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "They'll sell for plenty if you have the right buyer. Just be patient."

I knew he was right, and sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I know," I mumbled.

"Like, I've had this set of Steelies for about a month now. I hear they go for about six million mesos, and-"

"Seven million!" I gasped, moving my pack in front of me. "I need a set of those, I'll buy it for Seven Million Mesos in cash."

He took out the plastic case with a smirk. "You carry all that money with you?" he asked.

I shook my head. "It's all in my account, I've got about half a million on me now," I explained. "We could take a short walk to Teeny and I could withdraw it in person, or we could do it all digitally."

"I'd rather the latter," Hideval said with a laugh. "As I'd probably just put the money into my account anyway."

We both took out our personal ID cards and made the transaction, then he handed me the case. We thanked each other and left, him going up to the Jr. Cellions and me going back down to the Sentinels. I inserted the new Steelies on the way, their weight feeling very different from the flat Kumbis I was used to. On the way down, I tried out a Lucky Seven on a Jr. Sentinel. It was broken after one Lucky Seven and one normal throw.

Ecstatic, I picked up a Luck Ore that it dropped and continued my way to the lower levels, wondering if today would be a good day after all.

-------------------

Roughly an hour into training, I was firing away at a normal Sentinel, not bothering to use Lucky Seven. My mana was down and it healed slowly. Since I had plenty of time, as this area was generally empty, I never bothered to use any healing potions or anything.

I was just about to kill an enemy when lightning struck it from above. I turned angrily, knowing that the experience points that the robot held would now be split between me and someone else.

That someone had no hat, but his purple, spiked hair fit well with his black robe.

"Hideval!" I said in surprise. "What brings you down here...?" For he was level 36, and it was no place to be training for a Mage of such a level.

"I need Wisdom Ores," he explained. "I was on my way down to the Ice and Fire Sentinels and there you were. Sorry for stealing that kill."

"It didn't drop anything important, so I don't mind," I said with a laugh. "Sometimes there're Cape Scrolls inside them, but yeah." Scrolls were magical objects that were used to make armors or weapons more useful. By reading the Scroll you gain a huge amount of mana in your body, and the next thing you touch that applies to the scroll) becomes the target for the power. The mana is released into it and voila, a more powerful item.

"That'd be how you get all your money, then?" Hideval asked. "It's not normal for an assassin to be carrying so much."

I silently agreed. It was indeed costly, this job. Mana and Health potions, as well as buying and recharging stars. Also, the armors and claws asked for much more than they were worth.

"I've got a few friends," I explained. "One Chief Bandit who retired to work with his family, he gave me all of his old stuff. A really cool Hunter who calls himself The Just Owner, he helps me out with quests. He's kind of slow, but charitable. A couple other guys, high-leveled... A sarcastic Cleric who's easy to like, a caring Warrior who prefers giving to taking."

"And of course the scrolls."

I shrugged. "Yeah, mostly the scrolls," I laughed. Some people in town will pay one-and-a-half million for a 60 Scroll for Cape's Intelligence... Maybe they'll think it'll make them smarter. I still don't know.

"Anyway," I continued, shifting my pack and opening it to my side. "I've got a few Wisdom Crystal Ores in here. I'll give them to ya for cheap, but I still need money-"

"Of course, of course!" Hideval said as if I was insulting him. "Never would I ask for charity, It's not like you owe me anything."

I shrugged. "Well, there's four here that I've picked up," I said. They were useless to me, mostly stuff that others have dropped or that I've taken and made in my rare encounters with Ice or Fire Sentinels. "So how many do you need?"

"Three, one for my brother and two for me."

"Okay," I said, calculating. "They go for 85 thousand, usually. So I'll cut off 10 each. 225 thousand for all three sound good?"

Hideval lost his balance. I faltered, but he looked up with a grin. "Uh," he muttered. "How about two for 150 thousand?"

I paused for a moment, befuddled, before laughing. "What'd you do, spend all your money on scrolls?" I asked, not malevolently. "I just gave you seven mil!"

Hideval blushed. "One of my friends helped me out with all of my equipment," he said, looking to the side. I stopped laughing. "At least, I thought she was one of my friends... As soon as she'd given them to me she gave me a receipt. I owe her twelve million for all of my stuff. She just walked away and told me to bring the money to the bar in Kerning in a month. She said that I'd regret it if I swindled her out of her money."

"How long ago was that?" I asked. I'd heard about this kind of thing happening, especially near Kerning. This did sound serious, but it could turn out that Hideval was the con artist here, and that I was the victim.

"It was a day and three weeks ago, I have until next Monday. Eight days left."

I thought for a second, jumping onto a rope and hanging there while the Sentinels floated aimlessly below me. They would never attack except in self-defense, and as long as I didn't fall on them I could hang here all day without a worry.

"What'd happen if you tried to run away, you think?" I asked, leaning off the rope casually.

Hideval killed the two Sentinels with Ice Magics, ignoring the broken metal shellpieces that clattered to the floor, dead.

"I'm not so sure I want to find out," he said through gritted teeth, glaring at the shellpieces. "She was a part of a Guild."

All was silent for a few seconds. I didn't even need to ask.

"The Maffiya Guild," we said in unison, and my eyes widened as I gasped. At the same time he looked down, to the side. It wasn't for dramatic effect but anyone watching would've thought so.

The Maffiya was notorious for luring people into their sordid deals or loans. Often they would render an upcoming Warrior or Mage useless, stripping them of any money or power through contracts and deals. Hideval had probably agreed to paying this girl without realizing it, under watch of another Maffiya member. There had been appeals in the past, but the Officials knew that there was nothing they could do. Lawfully, they had the right to do most things they did, even if it was morally evil.

"...Take them," I said, pitying him. He pushed my hand away, and the Wisdom Ores dropped to the ground. I picked them up irritably, swearing at him. "...Just take them, please, damn it. I don't need them and you do."

"I refuse to accept any charity."

He glared at me and I knew at once that this man would not be swayed. I smirked.

"Okay," I said. "150 thousand for two."

He nodded his thanks and reached into his bag, pulling out the necessary wad of cash. I handed him the four ores as he handed it to me confusedly.

"These are worth 85 thousand each," he said, annoyed. "And you can't-"

"I'd drop them anyway," I said, fitting the forgotten shellpieces into my bag. "I had no room for anything because of those, and I need these-" I quickly killed another Sentinel and stuffed the money and Shellpiece into my pack as well. "I need these for a quest," I lied.

He saw through it, I'm sure, but I'm sure he gave up then.

"...I'd just drop them anyway, really," I reassured him.

He smiled and thanked me one last time before bowing and falling to the lower levels, landing gracefully next to a large group. He took them all down with a few waves of his staff and picked up all of the money before going below again.

I gazed after him, wishing I could do more. But his soul was strong, and he would make sure that he wouldn't accept any more charity from me. I frowned, closing my eyes in thought.


	3. Allie

_DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. But if you, as a peer, want to use someone I created, you gotta ask first, mmkay?_

_And some information for the masses, because I've not released the information to the public just yet: The character I roughly base this story on is a Lv. 31 Assassin (Yes, I'm a n00b), named "TheDan" in Scania. Feel free to contact me, but I probably won't be able to be a buddy. My list has been full for ages._

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I trained for a quarter-hour, using up half of my Kumbis and a few potions. The whole while I was running on auto-pilot, attempting to think of ways to get Hideval out of trouble. I could only pull blanks, it seemed; Every idea was worse than the next.

_I could start a donation fund...? We'd just get poked fun at by the richer bastards._

_I could definitely try to lend him some money, but there's no way he'd agree to it. I don't think I have that much in my account anymore, anyway._

_Prostitution?_

I nearly laughed out loud at myself, re-railing my train of thought back onto the Sentinels. I could kill these for a day without using any recovery potions whatsoever, yet today I'd already used an Orange and two Blue potions. That was unacceptable for me, as I needed those for the stronger enemies.

I concentrated and released two stars in one throw at a Jr. Sentinel, and released a third star behind that. The first two hit perfectly, bashing up the metal sides. The third flew horizontally into the center, slicing the kinetic scientific impossibility into two. Behind it was another one, which I released four stars into in quick, mana-reserving succession. A third Jr. Sentinel smashed into me from behind and I was thrust forward; Turning as I landed to release Kumbis into the thing. With textbook precision, I threw two horizontally, again leaving two halves of the now-useless robot.

By now I wasn't thinking at all. Just smashing through these things, picking up dropped coins and shellpieces and every now and then minerals or ores. I imagined my Experience Bar rising with every star I threw, though I only checked the ID Card when I stopped to rest.

I was about to finish off another when magic in the form of a blue, physical Claw burned itself into my retinas. Someone was attacking the Jr. Sentinel, and I could vaguely see him running by to pick up a Luck Ore that it dropped.

"Oi!" I shouted. "I wanted those, don't do that!"

"Nobody's around to stop me," a female voice said from the left. My vision cleared and I turned towards her, still half-glaring.

"No," I agreed, "But I'd think you'd feel some remorse, at least. You're a Mage, you don't even need those."

She shrugged. "They sell for a hefty price. Thanks anyway, luv."

I glared for a full second before jumping onto a rope, climbing up a bit to reduce the natural swaying. I wrapped my arm around it and turned to her as she leapt onto a safe platform, looking to me.

"If it means that much to you, by all means it's yours," I said gruffly. "But I really don't like this kind of thing. I'd rather you not attack anything I, or anyone else, is working on. Okay?"

"Sure, babe," she said dismissively, playing with her dark hair. "I wasn't all that bothered about training up here anyway. I'm on my way to Ludi."

"Ludibrium's miles away, you need to take an airship."

"Yeah, sweetie," she said irritably. "I'm no moron, I'm aware. But I wanted to check down here first. Never know, some of my cooler friends could be here. Maybe some of my _Guild_ Members." The way she said it, braggingly, made me curious.

"And just what Guild would that be?"

"Depends, what guild are you in?" she looked at me suspiciously.

"None," I replied honestly. "I never have found one to my liking."

She rose an eyebrow. "You just don't have a money, don't lie to me. Assassins are always poor."

I casually reached into my bag to exchange my near-empty Kumbi container with my new, full, set of Steelies. Once it was in, I carefully released one of the knife into my other hand and tossed it to her. The kunai landed at her feet and she kicked it away, smirking.

"You stole a thing of Steelies?" she asked increduously (I rose an eyebrow but she didn't seem to notice.). "Maybe I should extend an invitation to our Guild."

"Doubtful that I'll be interested," I said, honestly, not bothering to correct her yet. Better for one to think that you have quick hands instead of one thinking that you're loaded with cash, especially when dealing with people like this.

"So you're not interested in joining The Syndicate?"

I laughed. "That Maffiya-poseur Guild? You must be kidding."

The Syndicate originated from the same blood as The Maffiya Guild, a brother and sister formed either. The little sister, who I'm pretty sure is called Cassie, was a low-level but rich Cleric. She formed The Syndicate to rival her older brother Barry's Maffiya. Both were big-time Guilds, each with at least fifty members and more than a hundred people connected to it. Supposedly The Syndicate was more underhanded, but oftentimes a member would be cornered and mugged by several Maffiya members. Cassie herself has been put into debt by her brother.

"It's not," the annoying mage said. "The Syndicate is pretty famous-"

"I'm aware."

"-Especially in its valiant efforts against the Maffiya's power-"

"One can't control the masses with the Maffiya in power."

"-Except _we_ run with honor and we-"

"Bull."

"-Run all of our quests and misions with honor, so-"

"Very bull."

"-So ...You're really annoying, you know that?"

I nodded and shrugged with my free shoulder. "I'm really, really not interested."

She was stubborn. "We can offer protection and money and popularity."

I couldn't help but laugh. Really, I tried not to. I held by breath and bit my lip for a good few seconds before my internal dam broke, gushing out sobs of laughter like water from the aforementioned metaphor. I laughed so hard I nearly fell from my perch, twice, and then I actually did fall, right onto a Jr. Sentinel. I could only continue laughing, even as they painfully prodded and poked my body.

She killed the annoying things, pretending to be worried. "Are you okay?" she asked, not even giving the courtesy to leave the money on the ground next to the metal corpses.

"Yes," I said cheerily, ignoring the sharp jolts resonating from where the Jr. Sentinels hit me. I'm pretty sure they actually managed to bruise a few of my ribs, but I did heal myself later. "Yes, I'm absolutely fine. In fact, the only way I'd be better is if you'd get the hell out of my sight and never to bother me again." I waved a mock-goodbye, still smiling.

Her eye twitched and she flicked her hair, walking past me to climb the rope I occupied seconds earlier. I sighed and sat up, rubbing my chest and crawling over to the edge of the platform. I stood and leapt, but my legs were still hurting from the Sentinel-gangbang. I nearly missed the safe platform, flying into it stomach-first. My throbbing ribcage protested further but I managed to pull myself all the way up. The collected effort rebounded upon me once I centered my balance and laid down, and I groaned to myself.

Usually the Sentinels didn't even touch me, and if they did it rarely even twinged. But I hadn't been paying attention to these and this rendered my thin armour useless. It felt as if I'd been tied down and pegged with baseballs for a few minutes.

Wearily I laid there, checking my ID Card. It said my Calculated Health Points were at 13... Less than 2 of my total. I groaned again, promising to spend more money on Orange Potions in the future. How long had it been since I used one...? How much damage had my body sustained in the past half-hour? I could die out here, and nobody would even notice, let alone care. Maybe a few of my friends would care if they caught wind, but it was doubtful that'd even happen... Of course, it was possible that once I reached my bodily limit and hit 0, someone would move my unconcious body to lt it rest and I'd regain conciousness.

Either way, I promised myself to be more careful. It would be out of my hands if I ever hit 0-

"Hey..."

Another female voice snapped me from my thoughts. This one was not as arrogant, smaller, more obviously shy. I turned my head to view its owner. Some raven-haired brown-eyed archer, her clothes meant that she probably wasn't higher than Experience Level fifteen. He crossbow was loose in her hand, but I didn't recognize it by name.

"Hey," I said weakly. "What's up?"

"I'm... I'm okay," she stuttered. "Are you in pain?"

"No," I lied, letting sarcasm drip.

"Oh..." she said quietly. "Sorry... It's just, I saw what happened and it looked painful."

I turned my whole head toward her. "I was _kidding,_" I said, half-exasperatedly. "Yes, I'm in pain, I'm in very much pain right now."

"Why don't you just use a potion?"

I closed my eyes and turned my head back toward the ceiling. This was not a conversation I needed to be having in my present state.

"Because there's no reason to," I explained tonelessly. "I could use the expensive White Ptions I have, but they'd be gone in a few days. It's more financially secure to just wait it out. The human body is an amazing thing."

"Oh..." she said again, walking over and sitting next to me. I could have groaned again, but I decided to at least try to be polite. She didn't seem like a bad person, there was no reason to be rude. "Can I sit here?" she asked, suprising me.

"Uh, yeah?" I said. "It's a public platform. I don't care."

_Be nice,_ my conscience snapped at me. _You're just in stress and in pain. Don't let it cloud your thoughts or actions._

"So, eh," I mumbled. "You got a name?"

"Allie," she replied, blushing. "Sorry, it was impolite not to tell you earlier-"

"It's no big deal," I said quickly. "Dan of Kerning, at your service."

"Sorry, Dan," she said sadly.

"Wat, for what?" I asked, worried now.

"Uh..." she muttered. "For not telling you... About my name, I mean."

I sighed. "You need a backbone."

"But..."

"I mean you need to stop apologizing for yourself. Have some confidence."

"Oh, okay, sorry."

I sighed again, and Allie seemed to shrink into her shoulders.

_What's up with her...?_

I let a minute or so pass before breaking the silence. "So what brings you here?"

"Uhm... I heard this would be a good training place."

"Who told you that?" I asked, increduously. This place wasn't good fro training, not in the way she meant it. It was good if you needed money or just wanted a place to get some experience while staying near Orbis, like I did.

"My brother, he's a really strong Hunter," she said. "He says he used to come here and beat up all the robots really easily. But I've been having trouble... Maybe I'm just weak..." Her voice got smaller and smaller throughout her explanation, so much so that I needed to lean in to her to hear the last part.

"Your brother lied to you," I said bluntly. "You'd want to go do Party Quests."

"I tried those," she said sadly. "Nobody wanted me, they said I wasn't aggressive enough."

Honestly, I could see that being the truth.

"Did you try the Blue Mushrooms near Henesys?" I suggested. "They're strong, but slow. Easy targets."

"They hurt a lot..." she complained. "I'm sorry... But they just plow right through me. I followed my brother to the Hidden Street, the one East of Henesys...?"

I nodded, I knew what she was talking about. I used to train there myself, it was a haven of the Blue Mushrooms.

"Yeah... I went with my brother and they just completely surrounded me. My brother was able to drag me out of there but he never let me follow him to train after that."

I frowned. As a brother, he should have watched her more carefully. Furthermore, he should have helped her train to become stronger, so she could hold her own. Or at least, he could have helped her pay for better equipment. She was obviously a higher Experience Level than fifteen.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, to the point where I felt strong enough to push myself into a sitting position. My ribs still sent flashes of pain before my eyes, but I tried my best to ignore them. At the time, I was sure they must have been fractured, perhaps shattered. I gave in to myself and drank an orange potion, allowing the spell-infused liquid to do its work inside of me.

"Have you ever killed anyone?" Allie asked hurriedly, as if he had been meaning to for the entire conversation.

I rose an eyebrow and stared at her. I considered being sarcastic again but was afraid she'd believe me. Instead I said, questioningly, "No?"

"Oh," she said, looking disappointed and relieved at the same time. "I'm sorry."

"Uh... Why?" I asked, still staring.

Allie sighed. "Well, you are an Assassin," she mumbled. "Assassins are paid hitmen, I thought..."

"No," I said, a bit insulted. "That's a generalization. Classes like Assassin and Bandit only describe the way we fight. The people who are classes as Assassins like to use claws with throwing stars, along with light armour. We move quickly and enjoy to hide in the shadows, so our cunning and ruthless way of killing enemies from behind makes people connect us to Assassins. I'm sure there _are_ Assassins that will accept money to steal a life, but I don't think there are any more of those than there are Mages or Warriors of even Bowmen. Understand?"

"But that's what I mean," she said quietly. "I know not to generalize, but you guys aren't called Assassins for nothing. The way you guys specialize in fighting is also the best way to kill a sentient person. It's only logical that there will be more Assassin-hitmen than, say, Warrior-hitmen."

That answer completely threw me off and surpised me. I stared, now gaping, at Allie's apparent intellect.

"I'm sorry," she said, and I laughed again. She couldn't figure out why.

"Come on," I said, a second later. "We're gonna go to Orbis, you need a fashion makeover."


	4. A Simple Trip? You kidding?

_DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. But if you, as a peer, want to use someone I created, you gotta ask first, mmkay? _

_And some information for the masses, because I've not released the information to the public just yet: The character I roughly base this story on is a Lv. 34 Assassin (Yes, I'm a n00b), named "TheDan" in Scania. Feel free to contact me, but I probably won't be able to be a buddy. My list has been full for ages._

_Tonight's episode, featuring "Conlan" of Scania! Applaud him, dammit._

"So why'd you ask if I was a Hitman?" I quietly asked Allie at the end of Orbis Tower. "Need something done?"

"Sort of..." she answered quietly, saying no more.

We walked again in silence, until we reached the entrance to Orbis itself. "So anyway," I said, curious, "Why is it that you wear that outfit? Surely some of the higher-levelled stuff would help you."

This part confuses a lot of people, so I'll take it slow. The government who runs the Monster-Control System (of which I and just about everyone are a part of anyone who has a Personal ID Card ) has made it so that certain clothing will release their magic unto the weilder. A Theif's Ghetto Beanie will make anybody Experience Level Ten (or higher) much stronger. However, anyone under that level or anyone who is not a theif will find the hat useless. Every class has their own large set of equipment, and there's usually a different set of equipment for every five levels.

Allie was wearing the Bowlady's Level Fifteen equipment, but since she was in fact Level Twenty-Seven. I intended to lend her money into buying her some better Equipment, or at the very least show her where to get some. It seemed like she didn't know her way around very well.

Allie continually tripped on our little trek through Orbis. Twice she bumped into other people; One swore at her (a quick incident, nothing compared to what happened later). The other hit on her...

"Careful babe," the Spearman had said, as Allie apologized sincerely. "Or you may find me bumping back into you."

"I am so sorry, sir, it won't happen again..." she squeaked, frightened.

"It seems you've jostled me a bit," he said, as I watched from out of his line of vision. "I think you may have scratched my spear. This thing was costly, mind you."

"I'm so sorry... I don't have much money..."

"You know, you're not bad looking.You can pay me back in full if you let me take you to the back of the Inn for a little bit of-"

"Allie," I interjected, stepping in between them. "Allie, you need to follow me closer. Come on."

"Hey, man," the Warrior interrupted. "She put a nick on my spear, I need some repayment."

I stared at him for a few seconds. He may have been taller than me, and heavier-built, but an Assassin's glare isn't usually something that one could stand without quailing a bit. However, he didn't shrink back... It was no matter, though. Intimidation techniques never worked well with me. I turned to Allie and said, "Do you want this bastard to lay you in repayment for that little damage?"

She said something completely inaudible, eyes wide in fear. I guess I couldn't blame her... It was a big guy and he could have probably thrown her over his shoulder if he decided to. Maybe even me...

"I'll take that as a no?" And she nodded.

I turned back to the guy, irritated if not angry. "You'll have to live with that spear how it is, then."

The rest happened in... I'd wager a guess at less than four seconds but more than two.

He aimed to strike at the back of my head with the blunt end of his weapon. It would have knocked me out and he'd have probably taken advantage of Allie or whatever. But he missed and my left shoulder got the brunt of it. The strike added to the momentum of my turning back to him, so I was a bit overspun... Quickly I thrust out my clawed fist, aiming just next to his head. The momentum carried me through and I backfisted him just below the eye on the right side of his face. Still spinning a bit, I brought up my left foot and roundhouse kicked the same spot, knocking him over.

Dazed, he grabbed at my legs to try and take me down, but I was much faster than he. Quite accidentally, I actually stepped on both of his hands in attempt to evade him. I'm sure his broken fingers crushed his spirit, and I would have stayed to say something clever, but Allie was gone. Turning left and right, I saw a flash of raven hair and cast a quick Haste on myself.

Before a crowd could immerse themselves on the bloody Spearman, I was off the scene.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

My shoulder ached, but I didn't want to risk losing the trail of Allie. She wasn't a brave person as it was, and for all I knew that event could have very well traumatized her.

I wondered vaguely what she hoped to accomplish by running so far. Did she think the guy would come after her after I struck him in the face?

No matter the reason, she was running, and I had little choice but to follow. I was catching up at a good pace, but though I called out her name she seemed to be unable to hear it. Through the backstreets she ran, nearby the weaponry shop...

"Yo," said a familiar voice, standing in front of the door.

A dark-skinned archer in black stood there coolly, and Allie stopped to look.

"Allie, hold on!" I called out for the umpteenth time. "He's out cold, we're fine!"

"Well met, Dandan," the archer, my old friend Conlan of Henesys, said laughingly. "What'd ya do, get yourself in a Guild war?"

"We're... Thanks," Allie said quietly and breathily. "I didn't... He just-"

"It's no big deal," I lied to her, and answered Conlan. "We met a moron who decided he was going to bed with my friend," I replied with a grin, coming to a stop near the other two. "Allie, this is Conlan. And vice-versa."

"Pleasure," he said with a bow, which she hastily returned with a curtsey. "So, bud, what's new?"

Dan blindly pulled out his ID card. "Still level thirty-three," he said ruefully. "Er... Bought some steelies, met some people, made some money, lost some money. The works. You?"

"I met someoooooone," he sang. "Her name's Lyo, she's brilliant."

"Really?" I asked, suprised. "What line of work's she in?"

"Same as us, Monster Control. But she's a Mage, a Cleric."

"Lucky girl, a mage..." I sighed. "Oh, what I'd do for some magic spells. So much better than steel or iron or... Arrows," I finished, gesturing to Allie and Conlan's weapons of choice.

"It's not as easy as it looks, she always says," he muttered, suprising me. "You need to spend a lot of your childhood getting to know yourself, and your world. That's why Ellinia isn't such a huge town... All the Magicians who govern it recognize and respect the life force in the trees and wildlife. Which, in turn, is why it grows so much. All the up-and-coming magic weilders go there to be with those same trees."

"What, do they leech power from wildlife?"

"Nah," Conlan smirked. "It's complicated, forget it."

"You'll explain it to me later," I said grinning. "Anyway, we were gonna take a walk to the armour shop for Allie. She's actually Level Twenty-Seven."

"So why don't you wear the Twenty-five equipment?" Conlan asked increduously. "Or at least the Twenty stuff, the Shivermail. It's not too expensive, is it?"

"It's... Showy," she said quietly. And I rose an eyebrow, trying to figure out what she meant. Then I looked (And I'm proud of this: For the first time, mind you.) below her neckline and everything that didn't use to make sense fell into place.

"Why, you're just full-figured," I said honestly, half because I was noticing for the first time and half because it was good advice. "It's not a big deal to wear skimpy stuff, especially since it doesn't matter much... It's all about the magic infusion, right? Oh, and for the record, I had to deal with the Sneak armour for five levels. It was like walking around in a bondage uniform."

Conlan burst out laughing. "I have GOT to have a picture of that somewhere, Dan, I know it," he joked, but it worried me all the same. I mean, I wasn't exactly built and I knew it. Toned, perhaps. Strong, yes. But wimpy. Without a doubt. Wimpy and short, that was me.

I rolled my eyes, pretending not to care about his little threats. "Come on, _Conman_," I said, holding Allie's hand and leading her gently towards the Armour Shop. "We're gonna get some stuff here. I want your input."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Allie was taken to the back by two girls, about mine or Conlan's age, to be fitted for Bennis Chainmail. We both took seats in the lobby, exchanging conversation and helpful items.

"I swear, _Conman_, you should look into keeping these," I said as we traded my arrows for his collection of dropped Monster Cards.

"I still don't see why you bother carrying them around, _Dandan_," he replied, stuffing the arrows into his quiver. "But no matter. Who is this girl, anyway? It's not like you to pick up random girls."

I shrugged. "I got attacked by a huge mob of Sentinels, and she was there."

"She was down by the Sentinels? I'm suprised that she made it that far."

I winced. "Junior Sentinels," I clarified. He burst into laughter. "Anyway, we just got to talking. One thing led to the next, and now here we-"

"What, did you roll in the hay with her?" Conlan asked, never missing a chance.

"Not yet," I said with a wink, factually having no such plans. "But, you know, she does come onto you as a promiscuous one, no?"

"Doubtless!" he laughed. "We'll both have her carry our children!"

"I wanted twins, Conman!" By now, of course, we were merely talking to pass the time.

"Of course we can have twins, Dandan. They'll be two boys."

"A boy and a girl."

"Okay. We'll name the girl Arita. She'll be older by six minutes and have curly blonde hair."

"Yup, and the other will be named Santago. He'll be darker-skinned."

"Will he talk like a gangsta?"

"No, but Anita will. Santago will be a prodigy, and graduate from College with a degree in Thermophysics at age seven."

"Of course," Conlan answered with a wise nod. "And the two of them will team up with us and defeat the Pianus."

At the word we attracted more stares than normal. In fact, the shopkeeper told us to take our dirty language out. We left, of course, still chortling into our sleeves. Conlan settled onto a front step so I sat directly behind him, leaning back.

"I love this city," I said contently. "So peaceful in general. Always a different crowd, no two days are the same. You know?"

He nodded in front of me. "Lyo shares your sentiments, actually," he said. "though I still prefer the hustle and bustle of Henesys."

"Pah, hustle and bustle!" I crowed. "Try growing up in Kerning! Half the time in Grade School I couldn't sleep because of the PQ attempts going on out my window. I must say, I probably gained my more obscene half of my vocabulary from that."

Conlan snorted appreciatively. "You didn't have to walk half a mile just to get to the stores, though."

"Fair point."

We were interrupted at this point in our conversation by Allie stepping outside. She looked prettier, somehow. Must've been the shiny Chainmail, if not her changed pose. She was standing straighter now, a nervous smile pulling at her lips. She wasn't playing with her fingers, instead holding then clasped around her crossbow at hip level.

"I feel... Stronger," she said, her voice still quiet and shy. "But it's... It's still showy."

Again, for the first time, I took a quick glance down. Indeed, the chainmail was semi-formfitting.

"You don't suppose that it'll get in the way or anything?" I asked honestly.

"It has... Er... Support..." Allie blushed. Conman looked away, on the verge of laughter. I kicked him subtlely, to which he not-so-subtlely gawked and attempted to turn it into a conspicuous coughing fit.

"Well, nobody's gonna be looking," I said, ignoring him. "For one, we'll all be aiming at little floating 'bots. For two, it's pretty dark in the tower."

"And for three," Conlan said, sharing a brainwave. "We'll beat anyone's ass who comes to bug you." He and I nodded, and Allie couldn't help but snort and then laugh. We all laughed together.

"Witchu all rofflin' 'bout?" a theif dressed darkly asked.

I paused. "Waffling?"

"Rofflin'. Roffling. You know, Roffle? Are-Oh-Eff-El?"

"No, moron, go away!" Conlan said loudly and somehow kindly. He tossed the thief a golden coin and we were all on our way. Conlan met Lyo halfway there, though, and after a short conversation the two decided to go kill Junior Grupins instead. We bid him thank-you and goodbye, and he threw back a wave and a wink as he teleported off.

"So," I said, nearing the ladder to Orbis Tower. "You're all stocked up on Potions and Arrows, right?"

"Yup and yup, I think," Allie replied. I could tell she was excited to try out her new armour, and she was trying to use the excitement's momentum to keep her happy and hopeful. I nonverbally decided that it was a respectable attempt, and decided to help her with it.

"Well, then, Allie of Henesys," I said cheerily. "I got your back, you've got mine; Let's go kick some Sentinel ass."

She smiled and leapt down the ladder and as I followed her I realized two things: One, it made me glad to see her so confident about her abilities. And two, it's not a good idea to jump down a ledge when there's a ladder there. I mean, like, major pain on the ankles. And that's no good.


	5. Like Some Kinda Horror Movie

_DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. But if you, as a peer, want to use someone I created, you gotta ask first, mmkay? _

_The character I roughly base this story on is a Lv. 38 Assassin, named "TheDan" in Scania. Feel free to contact me, I'm usually not doing anything terribly important online and I'd love to see some peers or fans in-game!_

_--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

It had been a week and a half since that day. The day I got my Steelies, the day I met Allie and talked with Conlan. By now I was worried. I haven't caught wind of my archer friend or his significant other; nor had I seen anything about Hideval.

Allie and I had trained a huge amount, selling whatever we found. Between the two of us and charity from my friend, The Just Owner (who showed up for all of two minutes on his way to El Nath), we had managed to earn a total of six million mesos.

That was last Sunday.

"I bought my knives from him," I said, twirling a Steely around my fingers. "So we know he has at least seven mil."

"You're forgetting interest," Allie said grumpily, slumping onto the table. "If it's actually the Maffiya, we can be sure there's plenty of that."

"Even still, I'm sure we can trust Hideval to have scrounged up some currency on his own."

We were sitting in a rented room in El Nath... The trip down had taken at least an hour, but we needed to be here to sell the most of our goods.

"Fair point... That's what, uh...-"

"At the very least, thirteen million for Hideval," I said, the numbers fixating theselves in my mind. "Assuming, of course, we can find him by tomorrow."

Allie stood up and disappeared under the table. "I'm going back to the Free Market," she said, standing up again, but with her crossbow. "He had purple hair, right? If all else fails, I'll just ask around."

"I'll go as well," I offered, pushing my chair back. "He may have gone into hiding, and you haven't seen-"

"We had the security cameras checked, remember?" Allie quipped. "At the Orbis market. I know exactly what he looks like. Don't worry so much, and get us some food for my return." She checked her quiver and left the room satisfied.

I sighed again, but didn't make any move to follow her. Allie had changed with her newfound power and abilities, especially in my presence.

Yesterday, in the free market, she had slapped a guy because he was making very racist comments, and not even to us. The day before, when we were getting her job upgrade in Henesys, she explained how she'd argued with another archer during the examination. I mean, he started it, but I'm glad she at least defended herself.

But she hasn't gone through some miraculous conversion, mind you. If I'm not in the room or near her, she's not nearly as confident.

Simple explanation for that: Allie's comfortable around her friends. Though I'm sure Conlan would tell me I'm in denial about something. It's not like I haven't considered the possibility of something forming between the two of us, me and Allie. But anything like that would bring up more problems than would be worth it.

_Whatever..._

I started making a quick meal, just some macaroni with prepackaged sauce. Nothing special. I put the water on to boil and threw on a leather jacket over my new Green Knucklevest.

Through our training together, I'd gone up three experience levels. Allie, though, was now Level 32. We used some of our charity money to buy her new equipment, since it hardly dented the account.

"Six million mesos in a few days," I muttered, stirring the pasta into the pot. "If only it was like this every day."

Sighing, I set the wooden spoon next to the stove and slumped onto the couch. Lazily I took my Meba and slipped it over my hand, flexing my fingers to get that familiar feel. I expertly tossed a Steely straight up and watched it fall back into my waiting palm.

As it fell, I suddenly had a dizzy feeling. Suddenly smells spurted up that didn't exist. My fingers seemed to stretch out like inflating balloons, and the Steely began to inflate as well, even as it fell into my hand

Even though I hardly thought about the knife, my eyes instantly pointed out every imperfection in the projectile.

_That angle is off by sixteen point three-six of a degree. The ribbon is off-center, thirteen degrees to my left. It has a chip that gives it a slight serration on the underside, causing a three point two-five estimated degree malfunction downward in a throw. The tip is sharpened perfectly, meaning there is a eighty-five point six-fourish percent chance of hitting my mark, assuming the target is bigger than one point five centimeters diameter..._

My eyes slid out of focus and I threw the thing as hard as I could in disgust. It stuck with a 'thunk' in the opposite wall, but I wasn't paying attention. I had fallen off of the couch and onto the cold floor, clutching my head.

I knew I was the vision of 'weakling in huge amounts of pain'. I was very aware of that. But I didn't give a damn, right then.

I don't know how long I laid like that. I knew it couldn't have been a terrible length of time, since I got up to stir the pasta and it hadn't yet boiled over. I was supporting myself on the stove counter, afraid I'd collapse again.

_That's the third time that's happened to me. I saw literally every detail of the Steely and if I stayed like that I would have began to see my claw, and then my entire body, and then my surroundings, and then... I don't know. _

The first time that had happened, in a row of hunting with Allie by the Junior Grupins, I wasn't able to stop the visions. I did see everything, and if it wasn't for the kitten-like creature ramming into my back, I may have stayed like that until... Until...

_Until I see what I'm fated to._

I mentally slapped myself. That voice... No, it was merely instinct. My prime intellect was merely creating a voice for me... And it was spinning out of control. The _instinctual_ voice wasn't important. Right now, I needed to concentrate. It was easiest that way, I had discovered.

I couldn't help but look at my hand. Even though I knew it was only a hallucination, the recurring vicions of my claw hand perverting the laws of physics continued to haunt me. Every time I... I saw that stuff, my hand had elongated before my eyes.

In fact, now that I thouhgt about it, everything had changed for a few seconds. The Steely's ribbon wasn't red before I caught it, and the knife itself must have been the size of a small sword. I'm sure if I had looked at the walls or couch as well, everything would have been different... Changed in some sort of way.

_Why?_

I realized that I couldn't just drop the subject, so I embraced it. I tossed my Meba onto the couch and sighed, leaning onto the stove as I stirred the noodles.

_Examine every symptom... There was that terrible smell. The nautiousness, and obvously those hallucinations._

_...That's it. hallucinations. I'm hallucinating. The mind can send out faulty information to the nose and concoius mind as well as the eyes. Everything's a hallucination. Does that mean I'm going crazy or something? What is this, schizophrenia...?_

Even as I thought that, I remembered the Voice telling me that I needed to 'See what I'm fated to'.

I squeezed my eyes shut, stirring blindly. When had all of this started...?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Five days after the day I met Allie._

"A claw scroll!" I shouted in bliss, stuffing the parchment into my pack.

"That's what, one point two million?" Allie called back, constantly firing arrows at the Junior Grupins.

"Just about," I said, throwing several Lucky Sevens to help Allie. We finished the last of the kittens visible, and I walked throuhg the pile of corpses. Anything of value I immediately noticed, and without hesitation would toss up into my pack.

"So that's about two million we've gained today?" she asked, already aiming and firing at another monster.

"Less," I growled, throwing a few tobis at the same cat. "Maybe one and two-thirds."

Allie nodded. "Still not terrible."

We continued training in silence, killing the Grupins and picking up their dropped materials and money. They had many things of value on or inside of them, and oftentimes the creatures would steal money from a defeated Monster Control Agent.

We sustained hits, dodging the Junior Grupins to the best of our ability. After a few minutes of the painful training, we met on the single safe platform.

"I'm fresh out of mana," I said, sitting. Unlike Allie, I didn't need to check my Personal ID to know how well I was doing. "Do you want to stay here for a bit?"

She agreed and we discussed strageties. We were both snipers, as I saw it, and we had very similar abilities. Though, were I went for speed, Allie went for power. I suppose that was a pretty major difference between us, but that was about it.

"I'm good," I said, standing and stretching quickly. "But I think I'll use my Steelies this time... You ready to get going?"

"Yup, let's go," Allie said with a smirk, cocking her crossbow.

We both stepped off of the platform, and the second I threw my first Steely, which hurtled forward toward the exposed throat of a Junior Grupin, a smell erupted.

It reminded me of rotten eggs and decomposing humans. I closed my eyes and I could see the maggots, fighting for possesion of the putrid meat, crawling over each other an a frenzied attempt. I nearly vomited right then, but with gasping breaths I could keep it in.

When I opened my eyes there was a Junior Grupin... Extended to twice its size. I caught my breath and bombarded the thing with Lucky Sevens, most of which missed. I watched my Steelies fly, and they seemed to elongate as well. As the knives hit the beast, the blue (hadn't they been red?) ribbons seemed to stick to my hand, though I felt nothing physically there. The smell was overwhelming. I couldn't think straight.

With a cry I fell forward. Something had hit me from behind.

"Dan! Dan, what are you... _Dan!_"

Though I could hear her voice, it seemed as though Allie was worlds away. When I opened my eyes I saw two things: One was a timid, raven-haired girl in Archer's clothing. She was looking down unto my with a worried look. Beyond her was nothing but the sky, and several scenes ran through it like some kind of movie clip.

_A small girl, carrying a clichéd teddy bear, watching in fear as her mother and father argued. Her father finally lost it and smashed a glass on the floor. As the girl and her mother stared, the father stormed out the door. After a minute of confused silence, a little boy walked in the back door. He was older than the girl, but not by much. He saw the broken glass and his family, and he fell over where he stood._

_Several people sitting at a long table in a darkened room. Most of their faces were covered in hoods or similar headwear. One man sat exposed, at the head of the table. He had neat-cut teal hair, his eyes were closed behind his glasses. He was touching his fingertips of both hands, resting both elbows on the table. He was listening to the conversation, saying nothing. Finally he grinned, and several people at the table stiffened. Quite suddenly, he was crouching on top of the table, holding a strange dagger. Almost immediately he was on the other side of the room, and two people were bleeding. One was dead, the other wailing in pain._

_Conlan of Henesys, the dark-skinned archer, walking with Lyo of Ellinia. Conlan had just finished saying something, motioning a slap. She was laughing, and then she had fallen over, a bronze arrow sticking out of her upper spine. Conlan turned with his bow pulled, oaths escaping his tight lips. He saw nobody but let loose a Bomb Arrow, frowning further as he heard a shout of pain. He let loose two more, and the screaming ceased. He breathed for the first time, and dropped his bow, turning to Lyo on his knees. His whole body shuddering, he put two fingers to her neck. With a gasp he tried a different area on her neck, a deep growl emminating from within his throat. He looked up and screamed to the sky, hammering the dirt with his fists._

_Dan of Kerning, seven years ago, was talking to the Dark Lord himself, both casually. Dan had his hands in either pocket, while the elite ninja had his arms crossed. The Dark Lord said something that caused Dan to freeze, and they looked at each other. Suprised, Dan smiled and laughed. His voice cracked, and the Dark Lord put his hand on the boy's shoulder. _

_A brown-haired man known as The Tiger had a humongous spear over his shoulder. His eyes sparkled with knowledge unknown to most. He was carrying a strange rock in his left hand, which he placed on a pedastal. Calmly, he turned and walked away from the pedastal, readying his spear. With a deafening noise, The Tiger was already attacking some kind of gigantic golem which had appeared from the rock..._

_Hideval was in a deep, deep forest, far from any civilization. He was clutching his staff, eyes darting about. A twig cracked in the distance and he disappeared from view, hiding in the foliage of a Maple tree._

_"All is connected."_

Dan would not remember a single one of the visions, though they will return in his dreams.

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"All is connected," I muttered quietly, the only thing I could remember. I knew that I had visions when I had passed out, but that line was the only thing I could remember at all. None of this made any sense. Maybe I _was_ going insane.

The door unlocked open and I was on my feet, holding a Kumbi in each hand. In a combat situation, they'd be better than nothing.

"He wasn't there," Allie said sadly, closing the door before too much snow could blow in. I relaxed and put the Kumbies back into my pack.

"..You okay?" she asked, noting the stars. "Did it happen again?"

"Yeah," I muttered, nodding to the Steely embedded in the wall. "But it was no big deal. I was able to control it for the most part, this time. I was only out for a few minutes."

Allie nodded, but she was biting her bottom lip. She obviously wasn't saying something.

I sighed. "Just tell me," I said. "And be blunt, it's easier that way."

"He's dead."

I nearly fell. "What?"

"Hideval. He's dead, a friend of his says he saw the corpse."

_No way..._

"Wh- Who told you that?" I asked, trying to stay calm. "Who's this friend of his?"

Allie sat down, holding her stomach in both arms. "He called himself Renon Esper, and he was a Mage of Ellinia. He looked pretty professional. White Guiltain, Dark Starlight, Arc Staff, even an Esther sheild. He sounded pretty honest, too."

"He also sounds pretty rich," I grumbled. "Where is he now?"

"He was in Aqua Road but he said he'd meet us here later today," Allie answered calmly. "Says he has to finish a quest anyway, and he wanted to talk to us in person."

"Fair enough," I muttered, straining the pasta. Allie told me to sit down, she said I'd overcooked the noodles and had stirred too much.

"Leave it to a man to screw up such a simple thing," in her own words.

I had no argument so I watched the snow fall outside the window as I sat at the table.

_Dead... Why? What good what that have done to the Maffiya? Sure, it'd make an example, but is a human life worth all that money?_

_I suppose it would be if the human life was worthless anyway... These people have terrible foresight. Mix that with a need of control and a lack of intelligence and this is what you get._

_Dammit, Hideval..._


	6. Romance? Nearly

_DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. But if you, as a peer, want to use someone I created, you gotta ask first, mmkay? _

_The character I roughly base this story on is a Lv. 38 Assassin, named "TheDan" in Scania. Feel free to contact me, I'm usually not doing anything terribly important online and I'd love to see some peers or fans in-game!_

_Anyway, sorry about that huge delay... What's it been, six weeks? I'll check as soon as I publish this._

_Anyway, blame it on my move. I just traveled from New York to Florida, and I've left behind all of my friends (including my Ladyfriend). It's been hard to get on since they've (she's) been occupying so much of my time. At any rate, without further adieu, and just a second, as soon as I'm done with my comic irony, once you avert your gaze downward... The superb; The anticipated; The revolutional... CHAPTER SIX OF MY FIRST SEMISUCCESSFUL CREATIVE WRITING EXPERIMENT!_

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I dozed off twice before we ate, and once on the table. Allie was insulted but she did her best to hide it, as she was truly worried about me. It pained me that she cared so... This was a dangerous field of work to make friends in. Easily one's emotions could get in the way of one's better judgment, and end up killing everyone involved. I was fully aware of that, and I'm sure people like Conlan and Hideval were as well. But Allie didn't seem like an incredibly logical person. Not in that sense, anyway. She was a girl, after all, _and_ it had become apparant in the past ten days that she was romantically attracted to me.

Why? Don't ask me. I perfected my personality to turn people _off,_ not to make silly girls fall for me. But, she wasn't a silly girl, now was she? Allie was deep and intellectual and maybe smarter than me, when it came to certain things. I was positive it wasn't something major, maybe a little 'I-like-you-but-it'd-never-work' thing or an 'I-like-you-but-I-don't-want-to-risk-our-friendship' thing. Or even an 'I-like-you-but-you're-kinda-short-and-those-shoes-make-me-think-that-you-might-be-homosexual-so-I-wouldn't-want-to-embarrass-you' sort of thing. But I was almost sure that this would never blossom into a serious infatuation, so I waited for it to disappear.

Pushing the precautions out of my mind, I tossed myself on the couch again. I half-conciously surveyed the room, mainly out of boredom.

It was completely rectangular, perhaps twelve by twenty-five feet in perimeter, and I'd guess eight-foot high ceilings. A standard room system, obviously. The kitchen took up about a quarter of the room; A dining area another one-fourth with also a couch and bookcase; The rest was split into two private rooms. They were identical, each with a twin-sized bed, a small dresser, two chairs, and an end drawer beside the bed. The room I had chosen had a digital alarm clock on that table, which for some reason Allie was terribly against.

"It's sort of like an evil face," she said, looking warily at the device. "Like a Zombie Lupin's eyes, you know?"

"I guess so," I said, which should be read as 'Not at all, but I find it irrelevant and therefore not worth a discussion.'

"So you'll take this room?" Allie asked, smiling and playing with her fingers like a hesitant puppy. That's really the only way I find it possible to describe her: A nerve-wracked small dog. She's loyal, naiive and of course cute; She's afraid of so many things, yet so brave against others. I suppose it depends on the situation she's in.

"Sure I will," I said. "Not a problem." I rather liked the clock, actually, it's good to wake up early. Makes it simple and easy to train. Call me antisocial, but I'd rather not gossip whilst murdering bloody creatures. I'm only a chatterbug if you catch me when I'm physically tired. As I was presently.

We'd spent the morning West of El Nath, a floor down the Tower. The Pepes down there didn't give an excellent amount of... Anything, but Allie thought they were cute and since we were here...

"We might as well!" as she'd cheerily exclaimed, diving into the freezing water.

I never got that. Girls rarely have any trouble with cold water. Only guys. Blame shrinkage, blame low pain tolerance, what be you. I jumped in after her, wary of the special water.

All of the water near Aqua Road was like this. Super-full of oxygen, so it wasn't actually Water, in the sense of H2O. No, it was some strange substance that was as thick as water, with a PH level of 6.9. Yet, it was breathable. You breathed it in and out and your lungs would barely mind. After a long time, of course, you'd start to feel asthma-esque symptoms and have to leave, or go near the Aquarium (where there is a generator that raises the PH level up one-tenth so the waterstuff doesn't hurt you when you breathe. It's complicated.)

Regardless of the scientifice implausibility of the situation, I threw a tobi hard at the nearest penguin, just as Allie shot two bolts at once. It died and dropped a huge bag of cash.

"What the hell?" I'd exclaimed, my voice lost in the bubbles. Something was definitely wrong here.

I went up to pick up the package of wealth, estimating that there had to be at least thirty millon mesos in there. It was about as big as the Pepe itself, and mostly full of paper cash (which never ever dissipated in the waterstuff. Go figure). I couldn't figure it out, but something was off...

Allie, apparantly not noticing the riches, had shot at another of the beaked and snorkel-ed creatures. It retaliated by swimming towards us, attacking me in general for some reason. Was I getting too close to the 'shiny'?

There was a slight pain in my abdomen, more like a tickle, as the thing headbutted my stomach. Green and yellow flashed in my view. Huntress Armour. The thing was wearing Bow-women armour. And it was well-endowed, at that.

Wait. What?

"Wake up, you dolt!" a cheery voice said, and I opened my eyes.

A ceiling. What had happened to the queer water and the Pepes?

"You fell asleep on the couch." Allie said, poking me again. "It's almost four, and I'm bored."

"I was sleeping," I said indignantly, rolling away from her. "It was a good dream. We would have been rich."

Allie smiled sadly. I could see it in the window. Her face was beautiful, even looking so downcast and disappointed like that.

_What the hell was that?_

"We are rich," she said quietly, almost whispering. "Hideval doesn't need the money anymore. We... Well, mostly you, you have about a dozen million mesos to yourself."

I ignored her. "There was about two and a half times that amount in the dream."

She shook her head and said no more, sitting on the edge of the couch next to my back. We both knew that I was avoiding the implications, and I was grateful that she was staying silent about it.

"There was a really hot guy at the Free Market," she said, trying to change the subject, and not doing well. "He was selling a set of Ilbis for a mil. One million mesos."

Okay, she succeeded. I sat up, opposite her on the couch.

"Did you see the actual sell and price or was he advertising it?"

"No, I saw it physically," she said, sounding a bit insulted. "Was it that good?"

"They'll be gone by now," I said, stretching my arms and leaning back down. "That was, what, four and a half hours ago? Anyone could, and would buy them and sell them again for, like a thirty to fifty _million_ meso profit. It's long gone. You should have bought it when you had the chance instead of coming to me first. Not to mention, you should have mentioned that before I took a nap!"

She shrugged. "I'm sorry. You're probably right," she said, looking towards the opposite window. It was a conspicuous move and assumptions popped up in my head, which I ignored.

We were both silent for a minute or so. "What is it, four PM?" I asked, sitting up straighter as if I was about to stand up. "We should go do something progressive."

"I made a couple scarecrow targets and shot at them while you were sleeping, actually," she said, and I noticed for the first time that her dark red hair was shinier near the ends. "It's snowing outside," she explained, following my gaze. My half-awake suspicions were confirmed, and I only then realized how obvious all of that should have been. I groaned.

"Well, let's go kill some hay or something," I said.

Allie looked like she dearly wanted to say something, but didn't. I had seen that facial expression before, especially in women; The screwed up concentration and fight between Future Joy and Present Joy.

"You bought them," I sighed. "You bought the mystery One-Mil Ilbis."

"You make too many assumptions," she said, and I flushed. But my heart leapt when she reached into an inner pocket and pulled out this huge package that I thought for sure would not fit into my Meba. "I'm pretty sure this is worthy of a-"

"Name your price!" I gasped, smiling ear to ear.

She smiled sinisterly and I could feel myself blanching. She could do anything she wanted.

"Go out without your Knucklevest and scream about Infected Mushrooms to anyone you see," she could say. Or "Let's see if I can fit in your bed tonight (winky winky)," or "Throw away those shoes and buy real ones," or "Why don't we go on a proper date sometime?" or "I dare you to go play Hide-and-Seek with the Leatties," or perhaps she could re-inquire about that assassination she had asked me about in that first hour we'd met, or she could force me to seek 'psychological help' for my hallucinations (which probably wouldn't be a bad thing, but they charge one bloody hell of a lot of meso here), or...

"I'll give them to you, for free, if you let me give you a hug."

I stumbled. "What? A hug?"

I wasn't wholeheartedly _against_ a friendly embrace, not at all. I hug plenty of people. I had hugged Lyo, Conlan's ladyfriend, when we left them. Hell, I hugged Conlan when we left them. I hugged Allie one night when she awoke with a shuddering gasp in the other room, and I'd walked in and she was sobbing, and I didn't know what to do and she just held me tightly and part of me was afraid she'd never want to let go, and part of me almost didn't want her to let go.

_Damned testosterone... No, it's just good to be wanted by someone. To be appreciated. That's all._

"Just let me hug you whenever I ask," she said again, handing the nearly-priceless stars to me.I took them, staring incredulously, and put both of my arms around her. She was suprised, but she squeezed back, and we held each other for who knows how long, until the spell was broken-

Rather, we stood like that for a few seconds, and then I stepped back, eager to try out the stars.

"What, that's all I get?" she asked, and I noticed she was blushing a bit. It was cute when she did th-

It worried me when she did that. Hugging was one thing, but that blush implied that she wanted more. You can't give a dog half a steak at the table and expect him to go lay down.

"Yes, that's all you get," I said, a bit too firmly. "Anyway, I want to go try these."

Miraculously, and yet obviously, the stars fit.

There were two dummies in the side yard of the house-for-rent, apparantly Allie had been working hard. Either that or she had a natural skill for making dummies. A natural at the study of Dumminology. Mannequinology? I'll ask Conman, he knows stupid stuff like that.

I swung hard and the shuriken sliced through the neck of Dummy A, whom I decided to call Fred. The Ilbi flew and half-sank itself into a tree. An oak tree, no less. I laughed out loud. Fred's straw head lost it's balance and tumbled off, his strawly innards falling out on the way down. I giggled. I had decapitated poor Fred. He probably deserved it anyway.

I realized, at this point, that I have a very strange way of thinking when I'm overjoyed. I shrugged it up and tossed a Lucky Seven, obliterating both of Fred's arms. They flew back into the forest as well, but only barely penetrated the bark. It's hard to concentrate spin and slicing-through power on any throw, and in a Lucky Seven it's nearly impossible. Apparantly there's a Hermit Skill that would let me make a really big star using Mana, and that star would go through any enemies it touched.

Maybe in a few years or months or whatever.

Today, I decided, I would be merciful with the second dummy, whom I dubbed Fred2. I patted him twice on his snowy shoulder and began to walk back inside.

Allie was cooking. I could tell before I walked in, as the smell was wafting out the poorly-insulated door.

"Hullo," I said dully, and she didn't turn around. She was staring hard at the oven.

"Are you really supposed to leave it in for that long?" she asked me, gazing at me with brown eyes that-

...That looked very brown on this fine evening.

"Yes," I said with a huff, tossing off my jacket and Knucklevest. The day was coming to an end, surely now it would be save to throw on a regular sweater. "You put it in for twenty-five minutes at four-hundred and twenty-five degrees. As long as you don't let it sit in the hot stove for five minutes like you did last time."

She pouted. "I was reading. You should have done it."

"I was in the bathroom!" I exclaimed, knowing she was kidding. Mostly kidding, anyway.

"Hug!" she said, which threw me off. I looked, and she was standing there, smiling with her mouth shut, arms open wide. I sighed.

"Let me throw on a shirt," I muttered.

"But that'll ruin it!" she cried, but I had pulled my folded orange turtleneck from my closet already. I threw my Meba onto my bed; My glove was already there. I didn't bother putting it back on after the Pepes.

I stepped out of the room to a pouting Allie. "You ruined it," she said, but hugged me tight anyway. For a second I just rolled my eyes, but soon enough I was holding her too.

"Does it really make that much of a difference?" I asked, knowing that it was trick, multi-layered question, and that I would use her casual answer to make several life-altering decisions.

"Seriously, not really," she said, pushing the side of her head into my shoulder. I can't imagine it smelled good there, even if the landscape was frozen doesn't mean I can't sweat. "But I rarely get a chance to see you like that, and-"

"Bull!" I interrupted, noticing that her hair smelleed of strawberry shampoo and wondering why this was relevant. I realzied it wasn't. "I wear my Knucklevest every bloody day."

"But I can't see your pecs or outer abs that way."

I blushed, but made every effort to ignore that.. "I can't see myself being very pleasing to the eye anyway. I haven't worked out since early Middle School."

She shrugged, seeming suprised that I was so modest. Modest, maybe, but honest. I didn't weigh much, either. I was five-foot-seven and one-hundred-fifty pounds. I had nothing on the two-hundred-fifty pound Warriors that most girls seemed to fall for. I didn't spend all day lifting a bloody twenty-pound halberd into the air and bringing it down with good accuracy, every time. Not to mention the whatever-amount-pounds of armour they usually wear. I wouldn't be able to estimate, I've never worn any.

"You're pretty full-figured yourself," she purred. I realized-

_Wait... Purred? What's gotten into me?_

Blah blah, she _said_, and I realized that she was hitting on me. I thought it would be a good time to back off from the embrace. It would be a terrible idea, actually, but that's what I was going for.

She made a wild grab for my hand, and I turned to look at her.

"I need to tell you something," she said, exactly as I said "Don't bother. I know what you're doing and it isn't a good idea."

Tears welled up in her eyes and I realized that I owed her, at the very least, an explanation. I was going to, I was planning to, and I would have. Really, I would have sat her down right then and there and told her everything.

But my life never has worked out really well. Today, something really bad had happened to me, and then something really good. That means I was even, and fate didn't liek to do that to me. That would be fair. That would make sense. No, they had to go and bloody blow up my life, lest I get too happy.

The window exploded and a shearing pain hit me in the back. I had just enough time to throw myself in front of Allie's more fragile body before the glass made swiss cheese of my back, the fire of the explosion vaporized my hair and scorched the skin on my back (everywhere but my pants, which were my Training pants), and a large block of wood hit me in the back of the head.

Screaming, a harsh voice. Blood dripping down my neck. I could feel footsteps, but they were so far away...

I watched as my life faded to darkness.


	7. Simply Cold, Part One

DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. But if you, as a peer, want to use someone I created, you gotta ask first, mmkay?

The character I roughly base this story on is a Lv. 39 Assassin, named "TheDan" in Scania. Feel free to contact me, I'm usually not doing anything terribly important online and I'd love to see some peers or fans in-game!

Today's new character is my good friend Monica's own Hamina of Ellinia. Send her some love from the fanbase.

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Birds, in the night. Cold snow fell around me, into my hair and eyes. I pulled myself into the sleeping bag someone had put over me, my back aching in the strain.

Voices. Far away... No. Only a bit. Other side of this clearing, perhaps. I sat up and noticed the fire I had been next to.

My first impression was to flee, but my body was too slow. I stared at it until I realized that it wasn't a threat, merely a campfire. Nothing big, even. I'm a coward in the morning.

"-you've known - he might be?"

_Allie._

Thank the gods, if they exist. She's alive. I strained my ears, unwilling to stand.

"No clue. -anywhere - we wouldn't know."

A male voice. Defeated and exhausted.

"But..."

Allie again. She was quieter now, losing her nerve. My back ached.

"No. We've - most we could. -impulsive, is all."

A different female voice. I recognized it but couldn't put my finger on it. Didn't matter anyway... I layed back down and exhaustion flooded me. Nothing really mattered right now but the pain and the sleep. I dozed off once again.

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"Dan."

_Not yet. I'm comfortable._

"Dan..."

_No._

"Danny?"

_Die, you! Dammit._

"Daaaaanny?"

My eyes snapped open and I immediately regretted it. Now sleep wouldn't come back, dammit.

"Dan."

Allie sat next to my upper body, one hand on my torso. The other was playing with my hair. When she noticed that I noticed, she immediately withdrew her hands and blushed.

"What?" I asked, not politely. My back was starting to hurt again.

"I just..." she said, quietly, and stopped. Again the pang of regret hit me. I tried to sit up, and she stood.

"Wait," I said stupidly, and realized I had nothing to say after that.

"I just wanted to be sure you were still alive," she said finally, and began to walk away. A mix of emotions hit me, that of which few of you know. It includes fear for your life, fear for the life of one you care about, regret that you hurt that person's feelings, and curiousity so hard you want to punch someone.

"Allie!" I cried, and choked. My throat was pretty damn sore. She was gone. I swore more than once and lay down, staring into the fire.

_How long have I been here?_

I spent the next five minutes trying to find my surroundings. It was barren and snowy, trees everywhere. Those three voices from earlier. Well, two, talking in soft hushes. They must have seen the results of that explosion and helped Allie take me here. Wherever here was. The other, the third person was breathing heavy. It could be sobbing.

_Dammit. Allie..._

I swore again and stared at the starlit sky.

The only thing more mysterious than the landscape was my body. One of my contacts seemed to have melted into my cornea. It hurt like hell, and eventually I stopped opening the eye altogether. My back and the back of my neck still hurt, and the skin was scratchy. Like a giant scab. A lot of the hair on the back of my head was gone, and someone had trimmed the rest so it looked okay. I'd have to thank them for the care.

My shirt was gone, but my knucklevest was folded up near me, with my other things. I noticed with a jolt that my pants were there as well.

Suddenly awake, I pulled the covers up and saw, with a sigh a relief, that my boxers were fully intact. Luckily, I had chosen to wear the ones with the button on this fine day. First bit of luck I'd had since... Well, for a good while.

It was Wednesday when I got... When Allie got those Ilbis. That was pretty damned lucky, if I do say-

_Wednesday?_ The position of the stars and the moon disagreed.

I sat bolt upright. Learning the stars' locations and direction of travel were basic to any intellectual traveller, and I doubted I would screw them up.

"It's Saturday?" I exclaimed, hoping somebody would hear me. It became apparant that our two visitors had indeed.

"Sorry about all that," a man said, and I recognized him from Allie's description. Renon of Ellinia: Dressed in Black with his Arc Staff in hand, Esther Sheild on-arm, and White Guiltain leaning over his long, blue hair. And next to him...

"Hamina?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. She was the Cleric I'd mentioned back in Chapter One, a girl who I've known since my days in Victoria Monster-Control University. She was, as I stated, a Cleric, and a very successful one at that. Always on-track in school, she had been studying Clericy Theory while I spent my days in the Archery room, tossing rusty Subis at rubber dummies.

"You've got me to thank for your life," she said dully, but with a smile. "How's life been?"

"Interesting," I replied honestly, sitting up. "I got the job easy. The Dark Lord's a creepy guy, every time I talk to him I get that feeling that he's hiding something from me, you know? Anyway, I'm getting up in there. Level-" I paused to check. "Thirty-nine. Yourself?"

"Fifties," she said with a wave of her hand (the number hardly suprised me. She'd be a Preiestess in no time). "That's not what I meant, though. I put you on some drugs on top of my healing, but they have some side-effects."

"Namely?"

"Usually drowsiness," she shrugged. "Stomachaches, sometimes headaches, sometimes neck cramps. Also, I gave you a pain reliever that might have had some estrogen in it, so if it applies to you your menstrual system-"

"It doesn't," I said hurriedly, and she giggled. "I'm fine. Is the skin going to heal soon?"

"In about a week. Actually, I suggest you go shirtless for a while, and don't lay on your back-" I shifted to my side. "I'll just have Allie keep an eye out for you. We need to get going."

"Going? Where?"

"To find Hideval," she winked. I stood then, with great amounts of pain, and she clubbed me over the head with her staff.

For the second time in however long it had been, I conked out cold.

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"Bloody woman," I muttered, and Allie jumped. It took me two seconds to remember everything, and that was too late to stop Allie from stalking off.

Again feeling like an ass, I swore at myself and looked around. My throat was both sore and dry by now, but Hamina had had the decency to heal the head wound she gave me. I took a shallow bowl and scooped up some snow from nearby, crawling there and back. I put the bowl near the fire, recognizing it from Survival Class.

"Allie," I said, hardly able to speak, let alone yell. But I did my best. "It wasn't you, it was just the memory of Hamina hitting me, come back... Allie...!"

I only then noted that my covers were wet. At first I assumed there was snow leaking in, but it was a special sleeping bag sold especially for weather like this. And then I assumed that the water had leaked in the waterproof material.

Then the stench hit me, that of day-old sweat.

"You kept thrashing around," Allie said quietly, behind me. I nearly jumped out of my shorts. "We were all really worried, and I told them about those visions you kept having. Hamina said she'd check you out for schizophrenia before everything's over."

I nodded and drank the half-slush water. Allie took the empty dish from me and refilled it, then put it next to the fire for me. I thanked her and she nodded with a small smile.

"You've been out since... Wednesday?" she said, and I nodded. "Wednesday at like five. So it's been four days, almost. It's Sunday morning."

I fell sideways unto the sleeping bag. Snow was landing on my bare arms, and I was cold. I pulled the covers up while Allie explained everything.

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((A/N: Short chapter, sorry. The next will be longer, and in Allie's POV. So look forward to it! ))


	8. Simply Cold, Part Two

DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. But if you, as a peer, want to use someone I created, you gotta ask first, mmkay?

The character I roughly base this story on is a Lv. 39 Assassin, named "TheDan" in Scania. Feel free to contact me, I'm usually not doing anything terribly important online and I'd love to see some peers or fans in-game!

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"I need to tell you something," I said, and I knew I was blushing. I had that warm feeling behind my ears that everyone hates, you know? But he didn't hear me.

"Don't bother," he said gruffly, each tone grating against my ears. "I know what you're doing and it isn't a good idea."

I started crying. I knew I was going to. Today had been such a good day, too... I mean, they said Hideval was dead, but we didn't know for sure, right? And anyway, the Ilbis really made Dan happy. I haven't really seen him like that ever since we last saw Conlan.

Dan opened his mouth to say something more, but the world exploded around me.

That's the only way I can think to describe it: The shearing pain on my skin, and then Dan on me, holding me down. Glass breaking, a sickening thump, several small sounds similar to a bolt finding its mark.

Dan's body fell limp. I could hear screaming and I realized it was me. I shut my mouth and found myself whimpering. Dans body began to shudder.

Blood flowed freely from behind his head. I peered my neck to look at him and noticed that my hands were dripping with his life. I gasped.

Something big had hit him at the base of his skull. Blood everywhere, some of it was already caking. But the most grotesue part was his back.

The high temperature of the explosion had cleanly vaporized most of his shirt, leaving singe marks down what was remaining of it. His back was red, raw, and bloody. There was a place were I could see the back of his ribcage. But something else was wrong. He started gushing blood almost everywhere, and I realized that our glass window had lacerated him in a thousand places. There were long cuts and scratches, as deep as the width of my finger. Some places there were glass bits embedded in his skin.

I turned away and threw up.

"Dammit, you pile of bloody entrails!" a voice was yelling. "You could have bloody killed them! What the hell where you thinking?!"

"You could have said something before I used the bloody spell, woman!"

_Used the spell?_

There was a moment that I don't rmeember in which I assume I picked up my crossbow and loaded an arrow into it.

"What the -" I hissed, putting either of the two's faces in my sights. "Did you do here?" One was a dark-skinned woman, the other was Renon from earlier.

He froze, but the woman dropped her wand and put her hands up. Renon did the same.

"I'm Hamina, and this idiot is my burden," she said. "I know Dan from school. This was all a mistake. Let me heal you two."

I cocked the crossbow. "Stay away from him." I noticed only then that warm tears were streaming down my face. I gasped audibly and realized that I probably wasn't as intimidating as I was aiming for. Hamina's face shuddered in my sights and I dropped the weapon.

I clamored to me knees in a mad attempt to pick it up, but Hamina had crossed the room. The end of her Cromi was under my chin.

"You have no choice but to trust me," she said solidly, and nodded to Renon. Renon held his bladed staff at my eye level, and Hamina quickly waved her wand. I felt an odd sensation around my face, and realized she'd healed my face. Only then did I notice that it was hurting. I guess it'd been effected in the explosion.

She stepped back. I tried to glare at Renon and felt my muscles quiver. I was still crying. Through my blurred vision, though, I could see Hamina going over to Dan.

"Please stay away from him," I whispered, unable to do more. It was like my throat had clamped itself up. Renon was going to kill me, as soon as they had robbed Dan.

I was so stupid to have given him my location, especially after telling him that my partner was an Assassin. It should have been obvious to me! All that these two wanted was money, and 'Sins carried lots of expensive stars, and I was only a stupid girl who couldn't keep her thoughts straight. I needed to focus.

"You battered him up, Renon," Hamina said through gritted teeth. "I don't even know if there's anything I can do with him."

Renon seemed to stumble-

_It's my chance._

I made to stand but found that I couldn't. They made it look so easy in the movies! Fear was holding me to my spot. If only I could stand now, I could tackle him and he couldn't use a spell, and I could take a bolt from my hip and thrust it into him... But now it was too late, now that I was finally ready... And then I realized I had missed my only hope of survival. He was talking now, again in full control of the situation.

"Surely there's something you can do," he said quietly, high-pitched. He was worried. I started watching Hamina.

"_Heal_," she murmured, holding her palms to Joshua's back, half a millimeter from touching his skin. I gazed in awe as the green waves of pure magic washed over his body, speeding up a healing process. It was like watching one of those fast-motion films of a tree growing or a rose blooming.

Glass shards and splinters popped out on their own accord as the wounds they were sitting in started to close. Hamina watched with hawk-like eyes, picking here and there every now and then: Removing an embedded splinter with a swift motion, holding her finger to a spot where it had been infected, plucking out a large piece of broken glass the size of half a subi.

"This could have ended up in your throat," she said with a quick glance in my direction, tossing the heat-curved glass aside. "He saved your life."

"It wouldn't be the first time," I said, in a daze. Indeed it wouldn't... Compared to him, I was an utter klutz when we were hunting monsters. He'd be jumping around, throwing a Lucky Seven this way, a Drain that way. Stand next to me and cast a low-level Haste, and I'd feel that magical sensation as if gravity had temporarily forgotten my existence. He was so graceful in battle. I'd shoot a single Iron Arrow and sure, it might do some damage. Sure, it might hit a lot of monsters. But then they're all after me, and it's hard to shoot that fast with a crossbow. So I'd stand there and shoot and shoot until my mana ran out, or until I had to retreat, or until Dan showed up from Dark Sight behind a group and began to snipe them out.

"He's having trouble breathing," Hamina said, holding her fingers to his throat. "Good job, you dolt, you might've fried one of his lungs. If he was breathing in when you cast that Special Explosion spell, it might've burned him from the inside."

It felt like someone had submerged me in ice water. "Burned from the inside?"

Renon winced. "How do you fix that?" he asked.

"Surgery," she said with a solemn nod, and walked to the side of the house. I watched Renon watch her as she made up a stretcher using the bedsheets and wooden poles from the bed. She placed it next to him and nodded to me.

"Okay... We'll carry him. you pack up all of both of your belongings. Go quickly."

"Where are you taking-"

"If you want Dan to live," she interrupted me. "You'd better listen to every word I say. I say 'Jump,' you say 'How high?'. Got it?"

"Sorry," I said, and walked quickly into my room. Lucky for us, the window was opposite the rooms, so our valuables weren't touched.

I couldn't risk Dan's life... It just wasn't fair to him. I'd have to deal with these people until he came to. At the very least.

_Um... Clothes. Yeah. Hunting Equipment. Our money... Our food._

"Where are we going?" I heard the man say.

"Away, for now. We'll go to the shack East of here. We can't stay in one place for too long, and you just gave everyone in the vicinity a pretty susupicious-"

"Fine, whatever."

I threw everything onto the bed and rolled it into an unused sheet. I did the same in Dan's room, taking special care with his armour. His Knucklevest emitted a sweet yet bodily smell that reminded me of him.

_He's not gone..._

I frowned at my mindset and folded it on top of the rest. He'd be fine. He just had to be.

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"So who are you?" I asked. "And why did you attack us if you were just gonna heal us later?"

We were walking away from El Nath, towards the East. Our belongings had been thrown onto Dan's legs on the stretcher. I was carrying him with Renon, for Hamina was busy killing the monsters in our way.

"I'm Renon," he said gruffly, in front of me. Dan _was_ kind of heavy, but I think he was sort of milking it. "We've met before. And we attacked you because we thought you had information on Hideval."

"It's a longer story than that," the woman said, ahead of us, waving her wand like a musical conductor. "I'm called Hamina, by the way. Renon might''ve finished you guys off if I hadn't called out to him." Left and right, the monsters died around us. Her magics were strong... Magic Claws here, Holy Arrows there. She Transported like there was no tomorrow, and Healed herself constantly. Every now and then she'd pause and consume a potion or two.

"I knew Dan in school, and I only recognized him just before he used the spell," she explained. "And yeah, we were supposed to be looking for Hideval... We've known him for a while, since we were really young. He's been like a younger brother to us."

"We're brother and sister," Renon explained, nodding to Hamina ahead. "By marriage, though. We don't share the same blood."

"It hardly matters," Hamina scoffed, killing two Jr. Yetis in quick succession. "Brother is brother; Sister is sister. At any rate...

"Hideval, who could have been our brother, went missing one day in Victoria. He said he just needed to finish a quest and he'd meet us in a day or so. We haven't seen him since. Eventually we started asking around, and we eventually got to the Maffiya headquarters in Kerning."

"I talked to a secretary and she informed us that he owed them a huge sum of money," Renon reminisced. "It was outrageous, like ten million mesos or summat."

"_Twelve_ million for some clothing or something," Hamina corrected him. "And on top of that an extra few mil for being late to pay. I had to pull Renon out of there before he got himself killed."

He grunted.

"So we've been spending the past couple of weeks asking around about him. We had pictures, personal information, the works. We took note of every bit of information we could gather from the population."

"And then I saw you at the Free Market," Renon said, embarrassed. "I mistook what you were saying. I thought you were a Maffiya member, actually."

"He doesn't have the best memory," Hamina sighed. "We examined the dialogue as he remembered it, and the way he wrote you saying a lot of the things gave us the impression that Hideval'd escaped from some sort of holding and you were looking for him. So Renon was convinced, and I decided we might as well give you a knock on the door."

"That's hardly what you said," he complained. "You nodded to me, smirked your sadistic smirk, and said 'Let's give them hell'. You ever once mentioned calmly knocking on the door or anything of the sort."

"No, but I assumed you wouldn't try to blow up the bloody house," she quipped, and Renon grunted again. "Anyway, this idiot took a special scroll with him. With a blood sacrifice, a bit of concentration time, and one hell of a lot of mana, he used a spell equivalent to a Level One-Hundred Mage's Explosion spell. We're lucky I wasn't around the immediate vicinity right then, else we'd have had two near-immediate deaths."

Renon looked down. "It was... Powerful," he muttered.

Hamina took out her frustration on a poor Jr Yeti. Several Magic Claws hit it before it could even fall over in death. "I cost us a bloody million mesos, too, and you went and botched the only chance we had."

Renon growled, which I found quite odd. I had only ever heard Dan growl before... It must be a thing for guys.

But my Brother never growled. No, he was far too dignified for such a thing. He never did anything out of the ordinary, now that I think about it. Sure, he was a prodigy in hunting, but what did that matter in the long run?

I sighed and stumbled on accident. Dan's weapon.. His claw with the Ilbis within, fell from its perch. We all watched as it dropped, as if in slow motion. And then several of the expensive stars sprung out of the end, flying harmlessly into a snowdrift.

"Are those...?" Hamina muttered.

"Ilbi throwing stars!" Renon exclaimed, obviously excited. "This guy used Ilbis? How much do these go for now? Fifteen mil?"

I didn't answer him. We set down Dan's stretcher and scooped up his Meba. Renon put two in his pocket. I didn't ask why.

Hamina pointed ahead, where I could see a small shack. It had several intricate Spell Tags stuck to the outside, and the monsters hardly took a notice of it. We all jogged toward it, trying not to jostle our Assassin.

"We're safe in here," Renon said needlessly as we shut the door behind us. He crouched by the fireplace and Hamina moved a coffee table nearer to it. With a wave of her hand, she swept it clean. Coasters, soda cans, and an old bowl of half-moldy Ramen crashed to the floor. I threw my mittens near the fireplace.

Hamina and I carried Dan to the table, and she told Renon to get an oil lamp once he'd finished lighting the fire. We couldn't find anywhere to hang the lamp, so we decided that Renon and I would take turns holding it up above Dan while Hamina operated.

She took out a small knife with a grim face and I turned away. No need to watch, now was there? I undressed to normal clothes, but left my Green Huntress Armour on. I would probably be sleeping in my armour for a while. I didn't trust these people, still. Their story made sense, I guess...

Hamina leaned over Dan, and made a quick incision to somewhere inside his ribcage.

I suddenly wanted to do one or all of four things: Cry, Look away, Run away, or Throw up. I ended up turning my head and gagging audibly.

An awkward silence followed.

"Er..." Renon tried. "Uh, you okay?"

"Yeah, fine," I muttered, and then looked again. There was blood on the table. "No, not fine... I don't know what you're doing and you could be killing him on purpose. I'm afraid but there's nothing I can do. Please tell me that I-"

"You can trust us," Renon said, raising an eyebrow. "We've taken you this far, haven't we? I mean, Hamina even healed the burns on your face before we left. We wouldn't have bothered if we were out to kill you two-"

"But even so, you could just be waiting for me to lower my guard," I inturrupted. "To make it look like an accident or something. Well let me tell you, I'm staying up late and keeping an arrow on you, so you'd best be-"

"I may have made the initial attack, but you're taking it too far!" Renon almost yelled. I gripped my crossbow. "You'd better be grateful! I should just dump you out there with the Yetis, we'll see-"

"Hush," Hamina said. "Renon, you sound like an idiot. Allie, you said it yourself, you have no choice. So just trust us and stay quiet. Both of you, please."

We did.

Renon's arm started to shake after about six minutes. Hamina couldn't deal with the lighting so it was my turn. Wizards are weak when it comes to this kind of thing, but I can hold a bow steady for a half hour.

I looked away at the beginning, because blood's always made me gag. But eventually the smell wafted up to me, and at first I held my breath whenever I could. I got used to it after a bit, and it was then that I couldn't help but peek.

Hamina's gloved hands seemed to be peeling back a part of Dan's ribcage. Blood was flowing freely. I knew that shouldn't suprise me... She was a Cleric, and she could fix everything as soon as she was done with what she was doing.

"Give me your hand," she ordered, and I did. She slipped a glove onto me, one of the rubber ones that I liked to blow up like a balloon when I was little. She placed my hand on the ribcage and told me to hold it up. It was kind of heavy, but I held still. I felt like Dan's life was in my hands now, and suddenly I felt much more motivated. I watched with further intensity, unable to do much more.

Quickly Hamina pinched off a nerve at the base of a lung, and it stopped inflating. Within a second she had made a small incision with an ungloved hand, and then stuck two fingers into the lung itself.

"_Heal,_" she whispered, and counted to three before pulling the fingers out. The small wound healed itself just as the blood was starting to flow. She poked the nerve she had pinched off with her still-magic finger, and the lung began to inflate as Dan breathed.

She carefully held the ribcage and told me I was okay, and then I watched as she carefully put it back down.

"You did really well," she said to me, suprised. "You hardly flinched. Good job."

I smiled. "We're done?"

"Nope. Now put the light back up, I have to do the other one."

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Eventually I got tired and Renon took over for a few minutes. My arm was still shaking.

People say it can't be that hard to be a bowman or a crossbowman. All you have to do is aim and shoot. Yeah? Well aiming gets pretty damn hard pretty damn fast. All you have to do is cast a spell or swing a sword or dagger or spear. At least you give your arms a chance to move.

But no. No matter how much practice we force ourselves to do, Archers will always have trouble holding their arm steady for extended periods of time.

Don't believe me? Grab something that weighs about three to five pounds, hold it straight out in one hand, parallel to the floor, and don't let it down until you finish the chapter. Seriously. I dare you.

It was almost one in the morning when Hamina finished. We'd rotated the lamp job six times, meaning I only had to do it twice more. Nothing exciting happened during then, it was mostly Hamina trying to heal some wounds on Dan's back. She wouldn't let me help.

"Most of them are infected," she said, prodding at a dirty-looking black scab. "And the rest are magic-inflicted, so I'm useless at my level."

"Will they heal eventually?" I had asked.

"The skin, yes, in a month or so," Hamina explained. "But it'll definitely leave scars."

We all paused to glare at Renon, who looked at each of us in turn and then shrugged. "What do you want_ me _to do about it? What's done is done. I'll apologize when he wakes up."

I was okay with that, but Hamina hit him across the head. I laughed. We stood up, the job doen for now. We were all tired. Renon from the spell he'd used, in fact he'd dozed off on the couch in his breaks. Hamina was tired from the meticulous work she'd just completed. And I was tired because, quite frankly, I'd gone through quite enough stress today for a lifetime.

It was a three-room house for travellers stuck in the terrain, but one of the rooms was pretty unusable. It seemed as if a... As if an overzealous couple had spent the night. The sheets were gone, the mattress askew. The curtains were half ripped. The lamp was broken; Upon further inspection we'd found it crashed on the ground.

"Bugger..." Renon mused. "What happened here? Some kind of murder?"

"There's no blood," Hamina said with a knowing smirk. "Not enough to stain, anyway."

"Oh..." Renon said, and snorted. I blushed and backed out of the room. I'd probably sleep on the couch tonight.

"But I'm sure you'll find other bodily fluids, if you were to look, Renon," Hamina said wisely.

"How clever of you. Now shut up."

I chuckled and pushed the throw pillows onto one side of the couch in the entryway. We'd put Dan on the carpet and pulled it in front of the fire. Hamina said he probably wouldn't wake up until midafternoon. Gave him some drugs or something. I'm not sure.

It was cold, but I curled up on the couch. The fire warmed me, and when I closed my eyes and thought really hard, it almost felt as if it were Dan there, hugging me and keeping me warm. Oh, if only he _was_ right here, I could fall asleep next to him and I know that I'd be safe, since he was protecting me.

"Here you go."

I snapped out of my fantasy and saw Hamina, holding out a comforter, standing a the head of the couch in blue-and-green Magenta! pajamas.

The name was a part of a bigger brand, one famous for women's unspeakables. I never could figure it out. Sometimes it would say Magenta! on a pair of something that actually was magenta, but it was just as often to see it on white or grey or blue. The name brand was quite an odd one... I owned a Robeira's Classified bra myself, actually, and mum had bought me a lacy, more risque pair of underwear for my sixteenth birthday. I'm pretty sure it was still in its box back home. I might've thrown it out, though.

"Thanks," I said, and I felt that scary feeling that someone was reading your thoughts. "Er, g'night."

"Yeah," she said, and I knew she was smirking. I listened to her footsteps until she reached her door, and then she stopped. "By the by..."

"There's nothing between us," I said tonelessly. I knew what she was going to ask. "There never was. There never will be."

She couldn't hear my true emotions. I wouldn't let her. If I hid it from the others, I could eventually hide it from myself.

"I see... 'Night, Allie."

"Yeah."

She blew out the candle, and the room was suddenly illuminated only by the fire's hot embers. I gazed down at Dan's body, slowly moving with his breaths. In, out, in out. I tried to synchronize my breathing with him and found it fairly easy to do. That shouldn't have been possible. I was concious. He wasn't...

"Dan...?" I whispered in the darkness. No sounds, except deep breathing from Renon's room. That spell had really done a bit to him.

"Dan. Dan? Danny?"

No response. I looked the other way. Maybe he had athsma or something.

A gasping breath from his throat. I jumped ten feet and sat up.

And waited.

"Danny?"

Nothing. He must have been having a nightmare.

It was excusable... Hamina had said that Dan's pupils clearly told her that he had gone down in a lot of pain. It was pain itself that shut his brain into sleep mode. In fact, she said, the brain probably put him into a temporary coma. A short one, similar to being knocked out. He would stay in the self-induced coma until the pain levels resided. That's what the medicine was supposed to do. I realized that I was starting to trust Hamina and Renon, and I let my crossbow down on the side of the couch. I took off my Armour; Somehow the enchanted fire easily heated the room. With the comforter, I'd probably start sweating.

I'd slept in the nude whenever I could, assuming the door was locked. It was just more comfortable that way, I thought. But there was no door here, and I didn't feel safe with only the blanket. I left my armour at the foot of the bed, plenty content in my underclothes.

Dan made that subconcious moan that all people do in those seconds before they fall asleep. Maybe it was more of a mumble... I guess it depends on the person.

He'd thrown himself in front of me... Those glass shards would've torn me up. I wasn't wearing anything above my collar and I was looking up at his face, so my neck was fully exposed. The explosion replayed itself several times in my mind. Each time was different, but ended the same.

_Dan's body is tossed form the sheer force, leaving me vulnerable. The window explodes. Glass rains into my face, my eyes, my screaming mouth. _

_Dan jumps out of the way instead of in front of me. The wooden bar hits me in my jaw, shattering it, and the glass penetrates the side of my face and neck._

But I couldn't image the pain. The pain of such a thing, so alien to my body. The closest thing I could think of was being pummeled by the Blue Mushrooms, but that had ended when I gave up and fell to the floor. I realized then that that was completely different form this, and then I got mad at myself for comparing such a stupid thing to such a dangerous thing.

He put himself in front of me. He's going through that unimaginable pain, just so I can be alive today. Not even that... Just so I didn't have to be the one going through that pain.

Hamina couldn't know what that meant to me, even if her eyes said they did. Her eyes could never see the true regret I have for being so weak, so slow to react. They couldn't see how I cared for him, how worried I was that I might wake up and he'd have stopped breathing.

She couldn't see my tears, either.

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	9. Simply Cold, Part Three

DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. But if you, as a peer, want to use someone I created, you gotta ask first, mmkay?

The character I roughly base this story on is a Lv. 40 (Finally!) Assassin (By the time I finished it, actually, I'm already Lv41. D:), named "TheDan" in Scania. Feel free to contact me, I'm usually not doing anything terribly important online and I'd love to see some peers or fans in-game!

BTW:

Looking back on those Steely prices from the beginning of the story, I had to giggle. Got to love the Mapleconomy.

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(A/N : I'm gonna make the Simply Cold thing kind of long. Four to six chapters. It'll be alternating between Dan's POV and Allie's POV, but I hope you'll be able to figure it out on your own. Enjoy. :D ))

I sat up, finally, unable to stop myself from interrupting.

"You make such a huge deal out of nothing," I said, and Allie frowned. "I would much rather have nearly died than have been around to see you die. Especially since there was obviously something I could have done about it."

"That's selfish," she replied coldly.

"It is," I agreed. "But I didn't see you jumping in front of me, now did I? Happiness comes to those who grasp at it."

"I would have been fine, though!" she exclaimed. "I had on all of my armour!"

"I forgot," I shrugged, sipping more water. My throat still hurt. "Anyway, you said so yourself, what about your neck?"

Allie turned away, wiping away the cold tears on her face. I gave her the security of doing so in private, drinking the rest of my water bowl. She refilled it as soon as we were done.

"So what happened after the surgery, after you went to bed?"

She sniffled once, but continued in a hard, strong voice.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"HELP ME!"

The shrill plea, a male shout, rang through the darkness, and I rolled out of the couch, wrapped in the blanket like a very tired and flavourless burrito.

"THEY'RE EVERYWHERE AND OH GOD THEY'RE ALL OVER ME AND THEY'RE NOT MOVING AND I CAN'T BRUSH THEM OFF-"

It continued, piercing my ears. The source was, to my utter horror, my favorite Assassin.

"Dan?!" I shouted, to no avail.

"NOTHING IS MOVING! HOLY SHIT NONE OF IT IS MOVING!"

I stared in horror while Hamina appeared at my side. It was impossible to hear her coming. She was holding a brass candle, looking at Dan with the hateful expression that only extremely tired people at three-AM can possibly know.

"Can you hear me?" she asked, while Dan gasped for breath. In the light, you could see that he was tearing at his back with his nails. His dilated eyes told nothing of the fear his mouth was presently articulating. He was shouting over and over, thrashing on the ground, as if trying to tear his skin to shreds.

"GET THEM OFFA ME!" he wailed, continually, leaving red lines all over his body. The skin had broken in some places, and flecks of blood were flying about.

"I see," Hamina said sagely, and stepped forward.

_Clunk._

She had hit him over the head with her candlestick, leaving a gaping bloody wound which she Healed. However, her job was complete, and Dan was out cold on the floor. She rolled him onto his side.

"How did you know...?" I started to ask.

"I didn't," she replied, putting the candle into the fire to re-light it. "But he wasn't shutting up and he was doing nothing positive for his health."

"So... You knocked him out?"

She shrugged. "I'll figure it out in the morning. Renon's lucky, I don't think he even woke up."

And with that she tied Dan's hands behind his back with a sash and bade me a good-night.

Warily, glancing often at my best friend and praying that his eyes would not open again, I fell back asleep.

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"So..." I muttered. "What the hell was on my back, and why the hell did she hit me?"

Allie giggled. "We were tired and it was really late."

I growled. "That's, what, the second time she's knocked me out for fun?"

Allie smirked, ignoring me.

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"It's post-trauma syndrome," Hamina had declared around the breakfast table. I had found myself unable to sleep and so wandered around, eventually deciding to make a three-course breakfast for all of us. Dan still wasn't awake.

"Doesn't that come from wars?" Renon asked, a bit of egg yolk on his chin. I wondered if he'd notice it. I wasn't eating. I lost my appetite from last night's events.

Hamina sighed. "It comes form trauma," she said mock-sweetly. "Post-TRAUMA Syndrome. Do you know what trauma is, _Nii-san_?"

"Of course," Renon rolled his eyes. "It's just that I didn't think that such an explosion would qualify, _Nee-chan_."

"The explosion that kept you asleep throughout this entire ordeal?" I quipped. Renon glared at me and dabbed at his chin.

"Awww," Hamina groaned. "I was hoping you wouldn't catch that bit of egg."

I laughed, and his glare intensified. I couldn't help but wink at him, which threw him.

"At any rate," Hamina said, back to business. "We need to slow his heart rate. I'm afraid to give him more drugs right now."

All was silent. It was as if it was an examination, the bored Hamina testing us to see if we could answer correctly.

"Is there some kind of nerve we could pinch or anything?" Renon asked.

"Yes, actually," Hamina said. "The central brain stem."

"Wouldn't that kill him?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, actually," Hamina winked. "But it would slow his heart rate, no?"

Renon held a thumbs-down at her. I smiled at the display.

"Couldn't we just lower his body temperature?" I asked quietly, unsure. "Like, slowly, though, so he doesn't catch pneumonia or-"

"Exactly," Hamina said, surprised, nodding twice at me. "I suggest we just pack him up in a sleeping bag in the snow for a day or so. It should calm him down if we lower his body temperature by about a degree and a half. He'll probably get sick, but I'd rather he not kill anyone in his conscious's break."

"Agreed," Renon and I both said, standing. He had a large yellow stain on his shirt, which he definitely did not notice. I didn't find this quite so amusing right now, though. Work was to be done.

We arrived at his body, exactly as Hamina left him. He was breathing softly, a relief.

"I'll get a sleeping bag," Hamina said. "Renon, you go out and make a little coffin for him. In a snowdrift, you know?"

"Gotcha," he said, already on his way out.

"Allie, take off his pants," Hamina commanded, and I stared at her. She glared at me. "No, seriously. I'll be back in a sec."

I stared at the door in which she had just exited, and then turned my gaze to Dan.

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"Wait, what?" I asked, bewildered. "You took off my pants when I was out?"

"Yes," Allie sighed, leaning back and rolling her eyes. "I'm getting there, hold your horses."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You can't be for real," I muttered, stepping towards Dan's body. Hands shaking, I cautiously grabbed a pant leg and pulled, looking away. Dan's entire body dragged itself a couple inches across the carpet. I groaned.

I threw the blanket over his body to protect his privacy and pulled harder.

Nothing.

My heart thumping as if I was about to do something totally unforgivable (Which, perhaps, was possible.), I pushed the blanket to the side and loosened his belt. I felt my face turning red, and I quickly threw the blanket over him again.

I pulled at the pants and it all came off. I fell, rolling onto my back and smirking in a blush of victory.

"No, no," Hamina said, at the door. How long she'd been there, I don't know. She was holding a rolled-up blanket and a sheet of paper full of mathematical calculations. "If we leave him completely garmentless, he might lose... Something very valuable to a man. I don't want to risk the frostbite."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wait, wait," I interrupted her. "You took everything offa me and then put me out in the snow?"

"It gets better," Allie said, giggling a little. Laughing at my expense. Ha ha indeed.

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I blushed even harder. "You told me to take off his pants!" I yelled, throwing the expensive Blue Knucklevest Pants at her. "I'm sure I heard you right!"

She grabbed the armour mid-air and pulled his undergarments from it. "Those need to stay on him," she said dryly, tossing the hot-pink boxers back to me.

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I was blushing hard by now, and I knew it.

"Bloody hell. Did you...?" I asked Allie, who seemed to be on the verge of breaking into hysterical laughter.

"I didn't," she grinned. "I refused to and then Hamina ripped off the blanket and put them on for you."

I buried my face into my hands, unable to stop myself from snorting at the unexpected event.

"If it makes you feel any better," Allie said, smiling and putting a hand onto my shoulder. "I didn't peek. I turned around."

"Did Hamina have anything to say on the 'unavoidable subject?' " I asked dryly, forcing my face back to seriousness. Smiling was hurting my one eye.

"No," Allie said, obviously lying. "She said your boxers were too small for you, but I figured she was joking."

I couldn't think of any way to reply to that, except, "Yeah, well, keep in mind that it's cold."

She giggled again and continued the story.

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We wrapped Dan up in the blanket and carried him to the source of Renon's movement. He wasn't quite done, so we spent about five minutes digging a little pod to stick Dan's body in feet-first.

"How long until he regains complete consciousness?" I asked, as Renon checked Dan's temperature.

"I gave him continued dosages of the Knockout pills," Hamina replied, testing the wind speed with an odd tool. "To keep the pain levels down. If he wakes up like he did this morning, he leaves his conscious mind behind. All we have to do is wait for it to wake up."

I nodded. We waited like that for about another minute. I started to shiver in the snow.

"Ninety-seven point six," Renon said. "Are you sure this isn't gonna damage his skin permanently or anything, Hamina?"

She stayed silent, and then kneeled onto the snowy floor to write feverently on her clipboard. It was still cold. Renon and I stared at her for a bit, and when she didn't make any other signs of life, Renon threw a snowball at her.

"Oi!" she yelled in surprise. "The bloody hell was that?!"

"Me!" Renon said, irritated. "Can we go inside yet?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll finish up," Hamina grunted. We left her there with Dan, jogging back into the relative warmth of the house. Renon went ahead and worked up the wood to a wavering blaze, which we wheeled in front of to warm our windbitten fingers.

We would've worried about Dan but our wings were weary. Wenon... Er... Renon laid on the couch as soon as he was content with his temperature.

I think I fell asleep in front of the fireplace, because the next thing I remember was dinner.

"You're gonna burn it, Nee-chan."

"Hush, you."

I awoke to the smell of what seemed to be ramen, propped up over a pillow.

"Nii-San, get me a few bowls."

"Where are they...?"

"How should I know?"

"How should _I_ know?!"

I sat up, rubbing my eyes. My head felt like hell. It made sense; Stress was often a relevant cause for my headaches.

"Guys," I moaned, to no avail.

"You should've been doing something other than watching the snow while I was making the soup!"

"Just take it off the stove for a sec, I'll find them. Sheesh."

"Not 'sheesh'! I made six servings and it's heavy. Hurry up."

I sighed and forced myself to stand, holding onto the couch as a dizzy spell hit me hard. I waited it out, closing my eyes as the floor lost it's solidity and left turned to right.

_It's just the blood returning back to my brain and body... It'll end soon._

My temples throbbed and I loosened my grip on the couch a little. I found myself falling, but was that just the dizziness?

Voices now. Running. My head felt like there was something inside of it. Something sharp and white-hot.

Woah, that feeling. Now I was definitely falling. The pain in my skull was immense, and it dulled out the nerves in the rest of my body.

Had I actually fallen over? It didn't feel like it. But my hands weren't holding onto the couch anymore, and my point of gravity had moved from my feet to my back.

I opened my eyes to a blur.

"Allie?"

It was Hamina.

"Where's the Ramen?" I asked. "I'm hungry."

"It's at the table, come on," she said, and I felt strong hands pulling me up. but my balance was still on the floor, with my back. I couldn't hold my weight.

"When's the last time you ate?" Ooh, that was Renon's voice.

I thought about his question. Wasn't it when me and Dan had macaroni and cheese? He'd overcooked it, though, and I wasn't hungry anyway. I never had breakfast that morning, I remembered. But hadn't I had a roll with that special cinnamon butter the night before...?

"On Tuesday night, kinda," I said, and I realized I was mumbling. Maybe he couldn't hear me. That'd be bad. "Tuesday Night."

I made sure to say it very clearly and loud enough for him.

"I heard you," he said with a soft smile.

_Good._

"Allie, do you get bad headaches?" Hamina asked me, sitting opposite. I guess I was sitting down now. "Like, migraines or anything of the sort?"

"I used to," I said, noticing the bowl in front of me. I took a mouthful and burned my tongue. Everything was silent as I ate. My headache was unbearable right now. Maybe this was a migraine. Mum used to get migraines all the time. She would blame it on her bad contact lenses.

I finished the bowl and Renon put another in front of me. I realized he and Hamina each had their own, too. I wondered if there would be enough for all of us. Maybe I should stop eating soon.

After this bowl, maybe... Maybe not.

"That means you haven't eaten in about two days," Hamina said. "That's not healthy at all. I want you to take a protein pill when you're done and go back to sleep."

Sounded good to me.

I finished three and a half full bowls of the hot soup (it wasn't that great, but it wasn't bad either) and took two of the pills with a tall glass of cold water. Renon said that I could use my bed and I couldn't muster up the means or energy to argue against it. Feeling bad about acting selfish, I went up and fell asleep after about an hour of trying to get comfortable. It was better than the couch, mind you, but it wasn't _my_ bed. You know?

A lot happened when I was out. Renon and Hamina had to start taking watch because they saw somebody on the porch, and he'd run away with a good Haste before they could confront him. Apparently another person showed up, and Renon later went into detail about how he'd heroically battled the man. Either way, the fight ended in a lot of dagger wounds on Renon's end and a knocked-out bandit on his end. Hamina was sure that this wasn't the guy on the porch, though, and he escaped before any questioning could be made.

The siblings would take turns watching me and Dan and the house and going out to look for information on Hideval. Hamina had made a breakthrough in a passing Syndicate Warrior, who said that the Maffiya had little to no grasp inside the Sleepywood Dungeon and that would be very smart place for a fugitive to hide.

Dan had had another seizure thing, for when someone returned to his site he had crumbled the wall of snow. But he was sleeping when they found him, so it was okay. Hamina'd been giving him pills and water and a rare injection, and she said he was coming close to a mental recovery. We would have to leave him there until he woke himself up and most likely even later than that, though.

She and Renon had been watching me as well, for in the hustle and bustle I had met the brinks of passive starvation to death. By an extremely unlikely series of events, it appeared that I hadn't consumed enough food for my body in about four days. Hamina said that it was surprising that I didn't wake up with a bad headache on Wednesday. I said that maybe I had, and it had left me in the excitement over the Ilbis and meeting Renon in the Market.

Speaking of those two, Renon had found a hobby in the throwing stars. Hamina said that he wasn't bad but he wasn't nearly as great as he made himself out to be.

Eventually I found myself walking freely, stopping at the kitchen for a small snack during bathroom breaks. It was late, late on Friday night that I decided to take a quick shower. I found that my odorly smell was a viable cause for a headache in itself.

Once reclothed, I realized my headache was gone.

Overjoyed, and fully awake as I ever had been, I snuck around the shack. Hamina was asleep. Renon must be outside, then.

I opened the door and an Ilbi, badly thrown, bounced off of Huntress Armour. I smirked.

"Oh my god!" Renon yelped, surprised. "I- I was half awake, and you were there, and I thought you were- Agh! I'm sorry! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, it didn't even hurt," I said, waving him off. "If you're tired, get some rest. I'll keep watch."

"But your headache..."

"Gone," I said gleefully. "I just spent the last two days in bed, so I'm not tired at all. Go to bed, Renon."

He found that he couldn't muster up the means or energy to argue against it, and I wondered if he would feel selfish for taking the bed.

Shrugging it off, I set up a simple twine trap. I tightly wrapped a paper-thin wire around the perimeter of the house, staying a couple feet away from the sidings and porch. If anyone tripped it, the line would break and the bells I had set up would jingle. I lengthened the line of bells, letting the meticulous device trail behind my until I found myself where I wanted to be.

Dan was on the floor, sleeping. A small firepit had been set up near him, and there were several special protective tags pinned up on the trees near him.

I looked at his face. Exactly as I remembered it. I set down my crossbow and I knew that my emotions were starting to take control.

He was okay. He looked perfect, and he was snoring gently. Hamina had trimmed his hair a lot, so she could inspect and heal the wound on the back of his head. It couldn't have been more than a few centimeters long now, but the wavy-curlyness retained itself.

It was a pity; I'd loved his hair...

I frowned. Was that a jingle? I thought I heard a jingle. I scooped my crossbow and turned around.

Yes, lots of jingles. They went off in a pattern, coming towards me... It was nearly a melody. I stared on and the wind tugged at my hair.

...Oh. It was just the wind.

To be sure, I ran back to the trip wire and looked at it carefully. It hadn't been touched.

To be careful, I surveyed the house. Renon was snoring loudly. I returned to my post and started the fire.

You may read that as just another sentence, but be aware that it was a cold, windy night, and I only had a few matches for me. It was very stressful and very thought-producing, but I got it done with a match leftover.

I made two trips to the firewood shed and back, making sure that there was enough lumber to last until morning. The clock on the oven had said 11:38 as I was getting out of the shower, and it had probably been about two hours since. Maybe an hour and a half.

I stared warily at Dan for a long time, just thinking. I thought about the occurrence before the explosion.

I was going to tell him that I deeply cared for him. I wasn't sure how I was going to say it. Probably just what I wanted him to know:

That I really appreciated everything he's done for me. Actually talking to me and stuff. Confiding his worries about Hideval and even just stupid stuff. like he was afraid he could never settle down because he was such a terrible cook. I always said that never worried me, and I wasn't exactly a culinary expert either.

He never hinted that there might be anything for us in our future. No relationships. No closeness of mind and maybe even body. It seemed he'd started trying to make a distance from me.

I wanted to show him, though. I wanted to show him how much he meant to me. I know in my heart that I would take an arrow for his safety, and how hard would it be to say that? Wasn't that love? Some people could call that love.

I mean, I wouldn't. Not at all... Love was something I could never have. Love isn't something you see in Monster Control. Caring and respect, yeah, but not love between two people. It happens, sometimes, but it's a rare occasion. And it usually doesn't turn out well.

This isn't a well-paying job, and it's as addicting as a child's video game. There are people who retire with a hundred mesos from a decade of murdering monsters, and even they'll come back for more. It's fun, as much as I hate to admit it, to murder these mindless, painful creatures.

I suppose it's healthy, though. Somebody's gotta do it, after all. I remember that one day a Mushmom had decided to go for a bit of an adventure in Henesys. Mum was able to stop it before it could injure anyone, but the fear was there. These things were dangerous and we needed people to deal with them.

But if I can't ever fall in love, is it worth it...? I couldn't really ask anybody about this. Mum had kind of gotten married and was still serving in Control. But she's a special case. The great Athena Pierce wouldn't even let a divorced husband get in the way of her job.

I suppose Mum would be a good role model in this situation. She and Dad used to sit around and talk about how they met, during long nights. Back when I was still small. She used to talk about how he followed her around, even though she was a far better fighter than he. It always made me giggle, especially the stories where she saved his butt.

"But if you're going to train like that," as my brother had always said quietly, "Make sure you don't let a third person come along."

It made perfect logical sense. If two people were in love, they might make a bad choice in the group's survival. If someone's too worried about their significant other, they may be blind to the fact that their third Party Member is about to be mauled by a group of Coolies.

Yes... It's dangerous and selfish to love at all in this line of work.

Then why do I still want to hold him so badly? I want to hug him tight and promise that I'll never let him go through something like this again. I want to promise that I'll be there for him. I want to promise that I'll be more careful.

I want to protect him.

...How childish of me. Such sentiments could get us killed.

I stood, leaving my crossbow on the floor. I tended to the blazing fire, even though it didn't need it. My mind needed something to do.

"Allie."

I jumped twenty feet and turned around. That sleepy mumble, from Dan, in his dream. Calling out my name in his unconsciousness. Why?

"I'm right here," I whispered. "I promise."

Silence.

"Mmmkay," he grumbled decidedly, and turned over in his rest. I couldn't help but smile at him. Logic forgotten for now, I rested my hand on his. It was cold, and I was painfully reminded of the rates of Frostbite in this forest.

I took his fingers into both of my hands and applied pressure, just enough for friction to do its work. I'd do his other hand in a second.

His face looked kind of alien without his hair. It showed off a little white scar I hadn't noticed before, behind the back of his ear. I pulled the blanket down carefully to inspect it. It was an older scar, and it looked like a knife wound. From behind his ear to the middle of his back. That crossed at least two major tendons, it looked like it had been serious.

I put the blanket back and went back to my act of warming his fingers/holding his hand.

I alternated hands when I was happy, letting my mind roam. I switched his hands again, and eventually it started getting brighter.

The sun said it was around eight in the morning when the bell alarm tripped. I grabbed my crossbow and ran like hell. It was already loaded.

I nearly ran into Hamina. She had set off the bells.

"Uh, 'morning," she said. It seemed she had just woken up: Her hair was askew and she was still in her pajamas. "I didn't see you in your bed and-"

"I got up and decided to check on Dan," I said. "I'm just really awake."

"Feel better?"

"Definitely. I'm gonna go put out the fire, okay? I can help you guys today."

She nodded. "Leave the fire going, then. Go be with Dan until Renon wakes up."

I did. Nothing extraordinary happened on Saturday, until later that night. Renon had just returned from an information-gathering trip in El Nath. He and Hamina came to me, and we all sat in the clearing. Dan was off to the side.

Birds chirped overhead, and a light snow was falling.

"He's definitely still alive," Renon said, and Hamina and I smiled. "He sent me a message on my ID card. It said 'Help me'. No location or anything."

"Even with this new information," Hamina said, "We haven't a clue to his real location. I mean, we can mark our Orbis and Ludibrium, and probably the five cities in Victoria. We've been receiving data form his ID card for a while."

"So you've known all this, and we still don't know where he might be?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No clue," Renon sighed. "He could be just about anywhere except for those that Nee-chan mentioned. Unless he sends viable information, we wouldn't know."

"But can't we send him messages over the card?" I asked.

"No," Hamina answered tersely. "We've sent a load of messages already. We've done the most we could. He wouldn't ignore them. I'm worried, though..." She gazed up at the sky. "He's impulsive, is all."

I nodded. That wouldn't be good for anyone.

A grunt from Dan's area. All of us turned to look at him (which resulted in a neck strain on my part that would last until I fell asleep later that night), but he was once again asleep.

"I thought I heard something," Renon said with a smile. I could feel myself grinning like an idiot. He was really going to be okay.

Hamina leaned over and poked Dan's cheek. He snorted and rolled over.

"He's recovered fully," Hamina said. "It's just regular sleep. But we can't wake him up, yet, his body still needs to heal." With that, she produced another pill from seemingly nowhere and popped it in.

We returned to the shack to get something for dinner, and after the meal Renon's pants started beeping. He clumsily pulled out his Personal ID card and stared at it as we watched in apprehension.

"He's given me a location," Renon said, almost yelling in relief. "He says he's in the Third Temple of the Gollems, and he's safe." Hamina was already halfway to the door.

"Ruddy timing. The pill I gave Dan should be wearing off soon," she stood still for a second and then ran towards her room, still shouting orders. "Renon, get packed for a long trip. Allie, go be with Dan for a sec, we'll be there soon."

I dashed from the house as fast as I could, even casting a stupid Nimble Feet as I ran. What if something had happened? All of those last-second worries hit me at once.

What if those drugs had changed him? What if Hamina had overdosed and killed him accidentally? What if it wasn't an accident? What if he'd just _died_?

I slid in next to the sleeping bag, afraid that he'd have gotten up and left... But, of course, there he was, sleeping as usual.

I waited for a couple minutes before boredom struck. Maybe Hamina'd made a mistake? I started playing with his short, messy hair. It was wet from all the snow.

"Dan." I whispered, wondering if he could hear me. His eyes tightened!

"Dan... Danny?" I said, and his lips tightened. "Daaaaany?"

His eyes snapped open and my heart leapt.

"Dan."

He looked confused, saying nothing, letting his eyes wander. He studied my face, and then followed my arm. I retracted it quickly, remembering that it was on the top of his head.

"What?" he snapped.

I felt like he had punched me in the gut.

"I just..." I said stupidly, and realized I didn't want to finish that sentence. He tried to sit up and I jumped to my feet.

"Wait!" he said, and I knew I wouldn't be able to.

"...I just wanted to be sure you were still alive," I said with some hesitation, before the emotions overwhelmed me. I had to get away. I wouldn't let them see me cry.

"Allie!" he shouted. But it was okay. I'd come back.

_He's okay… He's really okay._

"Allie?" Hamina asked, quietly. Where did she come from?

I quickly wiped my sleeve over my eyes. "Yeah," I said gruffly. "He's awake. I think he's okay."

Before I could say any more, Hamina had pulled me into a hug. I stood there for a second, surprised, and then I realized I was crying.

"We're gonna get going in a second, so just let us talk to him for a second."

I nodded, and Renon went ahead. Hamina followed soon after.

"Sorry about that."

"…Hamina?"

"You've got me to thank for your life. How's life been?"

"Interesting… I got the job easy. The Dark Lord's a creepy guy, every time I talk to him I get that feeling that he's hiding something from me, you know? Anyway, I'm getting up in there. Level, ah, Thirty-nine. Yourself?"

"Fifties…That's not what I meant, though. I put you on some drugs on top of my healing, but they have some side-effects."

"Namely?"

"Usually drowsiness… Stomachaches, sometimes headaches, sometimes neck cramps. Also, I gave you a pain reliever that might have had some estrogen in it, so if it applies to you your menstrual system-"

"It doesn't. I'm fine. Is the skin going to heal soon?"

"In about a week. Actually, I suggest you go shirtless for a while, and don't lay on your back. I'll just have Allie keep an eye out for you. We need to get going."

"Going? Where?"

"To find Hideval."

_Clunk._

For the umpteenth time, Hamina knocked Dan out.

"Do you enjoy doing that or something?" I asked harshly.

"I hit him across the central lobe," she said, pointing to her forehead. "So he won't be out long. Five minutes at most. You need to make sure he doesn't get up and follow us. We won't be back for a few days. Understand?"

I did, and quite well. On my nod, she and Renon began sprinting back to town. They had a long trip before they could reach the ship to Victoria, and then a longer trip after that to find Hideval.

I returned to my unconscious friend and sat near him, tending to the fire.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-

"Then you woke up," Allie said. "And all that stuff."

I was stunned. I thought there would be some turning point near the end, but it just kept repeating itself.

"So," I said casually, laying down again. "You thought it wise to tell me about your inner feelings in that telling?"

Allie shrugged. "My opinions haven't changed since, if that's what you're asking."

We were both purposely avoiding the subject. I decided to sit up for good, positioning myself cross-legged.

"You're not going to ask," I asked carefully, "What my thoughts are on the subject?"

"As I said, it would be illogical to make any move," Allie said, and I could tell her throat was tight. She tried to fix it in a conspicuous coughing fit.

I smiled. "Letting logic rule over your emotions will simply make you a very cold person."

"Then I'll have to ignore my emotions to the best of my ability."

I thought silently, and knew what decision I needed to make.

"You overestimate yourself in saying you can do that," I said, "And you underestimate yourself in thinking that I don't want that. That I don't want a relationship."

"A-Aren't you saying… Aren't you going; to say that you don't, though?"

"No," I said. "I think you need a hug."

Crying, and smiling, Allie was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She leaned in and flung her arms around me, and I tilted her jaw towards mine to thank her. To thank her for everything.


	10. Simply Cold, Part Four

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. But if you, as a peer, want to use someone I created, you gotta ask first, mmkay?**

The character I roughly base this story on is a Lv. 45 assassin, named "TheDan" in Scania. Feel free to contact me, I'm usually not doing anything terribly important online and I'd love to see some peers or fans in-game! Sorry for the long wait, by the way, but you know how life throws you a curveball every now and then. F5.

Featuring, in this episode only, a written E-Mail by our own real player of Conlan. I didn't write it. F7.

Also, the same person who wrote that is promising to write a mirror to this story from the character Conlan's point of view. I'm looking forward to it and I'll be sure to give you guys a link if you can't find it yourself, once he publishes it. Why? Because I love you all so much.

And now something new: I'm gonna do something cool and reply to every one of my reviewers personally! Maybe this will move some of you other readers to leave me some love. :D

-TrojanPony: Thanks for the support, even if I do detest flattery of that sort. F7. And Florida's hot and humid and everyone here is so _shallow_. It's not any fun at all when you have to LIVE here, especially in an area without a beach. But if you're vacationing, it's one of the best spots to be.

-StargazerBlue: It's hard, I'll admit, to make a work emotional to any reader. I put a lot of effort into that, and the concluding sentence, too, so thanks for showing me that it paid off. F2. Also, you get brownie points for being THE ONLY PERSON TO ACTUALLY TALK TO ME OUTSIDE OF REVIEWS. Stargazer is now my #1Fan, so there. All of you need to outdo her. MAKE ME FEEL LOVED. It'll compel me to write more often.

-IkusaHime/Deviruchi: Hey, I'm a slow writer. I used to complain to other people, too, but you'd need to try writing 20k words plus to understand. F3. As for your prediction, we'll see…!

-Saiyuke Tasuke: THANK YOU for being with me since the beginning. I need more fans like you. XD About Duel, if you never received that message I sent (-doesn't trust Fanfiction PM system-), yes and no. KarmaDuel and Scott-Kun are all close online friends and we all share characters, names, and critiques for each other's works. Hamina is another friend of ours, though as far as I know she hasn't done any writing on here.

-SketchingAcrylic: That was what started this whole plot, actually, was explaining the setting. I'm the kind of guy who can't sit around and do something in a video game without wondering how plausible it is. It was actually during an episode of Naruto when I started to wonder, if Mana (Points) was used as The-World-of-Naruto's Chakra is used, would that explain everything unexplainable? And it did, for the most part, I just used my imagination to fill the gaps.

-Crostini: I thought about doing that, but I felt it would interrupt the flow that I wanted. Anyway, I like my readers to think. If Conman ever gets to writing, you MAY just see the full extent of personality-matching. F8(wink).

-Axzem: Ah, it's the talented reviewers like you that put a warmth in my heart. Keep up the good work on 'Allies of Krita', as well.

-Eien Kaosu: Yes, you have permission and blah, if you never received that message I sent you. And half the fun of writing gory material is seeing the reactions of others. Another F8.

But enough chitchat. Now, where did I leave off….

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

_I thought silently, and knew what decision I needed to make._

"_You overestimate yourself in saying you can do that," I said, "And you underestimate yourself in thinking that I don't want that. That I don't want a relationship."_

"_A-Aren't you saying… Aren't you going; to say that you don't, though?"_

"_No," I said. "I think you need a hug."_

_Crying, and smiling, Allie was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She leaned in and flung her arms around me, and I tilted her jaw towards mine to thank her. To thank her for everything._

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

She fell asleep next to me, and I held her for a long time, thinking.

"You'll be okay," I whispered, brushing a lock of dark red hair from her face. She said so herself, she hadn't slept properly for days. Now that I was here for her, she could finally allow herself to rest.

Works for me.

I knew what she was going to do when she woke up. She would want to know if I was serious in deciding… However she wanted to put it.

"Are you sure we're meant for each other?"

"Was it really a good idea to kiss me?"

"So, like, are we together now?"

"WHAT IS LOVE?!"

I snapped my eyes open and sighed. Really, my mindset in bliss was beginning to scare me.

Without jostling Allie, I folded up the sleeping bag I'd been using and set it up as a pillow for her, throwing the inner lining over her as a blanket. She looked comfortable and I was content.

I pulled on my clothes and realized that somebody had cleaned them at least once. I cringed at the starchy feel of the pants and remembered why I never used to steam-iron my clothes.

My Meba was on top of the garment pile, in just as good condition as it ever had been. I swung it as practice, aiming for the trunk of a tree.

Empty.

I rose an eyebrow and expertly pulled out the Ilbi container, which had been used up entirely, and replaced it with a container of Kumbis. I swung again and the star sunk perfectly into the bark.

"Sweet," I said, still trying out my voice. It felt strange to speak again. "Perfect, wonderful, excellent, absolute, unmitigated, proficient and utterly _fabulous_!"

I stretched my body, which felt stiff and old as well, and found myself grunting at something as simple as loosening my leg muscles.

"Hmph," I said out loud. "Hum. Humph. Hmmmmmm. Wooooo. Woo-hoo. Yoo-hoo. Boo-poo. No-neee-no. Nani nani desu wa." I coughed, looked over to Allie and continued.

"You see!" I said loudly to nobody at all, trying out the new sounds. "Zip zop zoobity bop! You don't know what the Jazz is all about. It's like… Jello pudding!" I laughed at myself, wondering how random thought worked exactly. I started hopping on my left leg, cackling and flailing maniacally. Oh, how it felt _great_ to live again.

"Actually it's more like kodak film! No! Actually, Jazz is like the new coke. It'll be around forever." I laughed again. "With the hippin and the hoppin and the bippin and the bop– Allie!" For she was awake and staring at me amusedly.

"…Shut up, you," she mumbled with a smile, and laid her head back onto the makeshift pillow. "I'm tired."

"Right," I whispered, blushing hard. "Er, sorry. 'Night."

She was breathing deeply before I could finish the sentence. I sat and stretched a little more… Quietly, mind you! After no more than five minutes I got bored.

I mean, come on. I just spent like half a week in bed and I wanted to MOVE, you know? Not to mention the testosterone in my… Somewhat newfound emotions were acting as an adrenaline force.

So, what to do?

I mean, I would have gone to the shack but I didn't want to leave Allie here, and I didn't want to waste stars or anything. I practiced using Dark Sight for a little while, and a Haste or two as well. I climbed a tree with and without haste. Eventually I used the thrown Kumbi to carve my initials into a tree.

I smirked at it for a second, and then thoughtfully inscribed Allie's next to mine.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-

"I think I love you, Dan of Kerning," she said with a grin.

I set the large mug of hot chocolate on the table, and then a bag of marshmallows. I was feeling very nostalgic for some reason, yet I could not place my finger on where the memories were from. It was some strange sort of déjà vu.

"Because I made you a drink?" I asked with a fake pout, retreating into the kitchen to grab my own mug.

"Pretty much," she replied with a laugh, tossing the tiny marshmallows into the too-hot-to-drink liquid from the back of the couch. I noticed that of the six she tossed, five made them in. I felt an urge to outdo her and we spent the next quarter hour laughing and throwing the little sweets into our hot chocolate, and then at each other. It may have turned into a real Marshmallow War if we had not run out of ammunition.

As soon as the fits of giggles ended, I realized that I felt very awkward all of the sudden. She wasn't talking much, either, and we both daintily sipped at our own drinks. I put my feet up on the table, displaying my Pink Whitebottoms to the world.

"Anyway," she said finally. "You… You kissed me back there. Why?"

I thought carefully before answering, even taking a slow sip of my cocoa just to bug her. She lightly hit my shoe (sans smile) and I started talking.

"Part of it," I explained, still smirking, "Was definitely impulsive. I mean, it was something I'd felt like doing since I woke up and you were alive. I guess that's what near-death and pain does to someone's emotions and logic. I realized, when I was out, because I was still dreaming, mind you, that I couldn't let myself die."

I sipped again, wording my next sentence slowly.

"It wasn't that I didn't want to share your feelings, Allie," I said. "But I would have definitely denied you in El Nath if Renon hadn't interfered. But then all that crap happened. Anyway, you know why I would never want to have any relations with you, right?"

"I think so," she replied, turning away and mumbling shyly, like she used to all the time. "It's because it'd be dangerous to fall in love, and it'd skewer your judgment. You don't want your emotions to cloud your mind."

"Pretty much," I nodded. "It'd be very dangerous and if I ended up becoming too attached to you and if you got hurt, I'd not be able to stand myself. I thought it would only be weakness to tell you, for personal gain and stuff. But when I was out, and I was dreaming, I dreamt that I would never wake up. And I saw all these strange things, most of it circling around you. You were constantly in tears. It was depressing."

I paused, but she didn't reply, so I continued.

"I realized that no matter what happened, I would always be worried about you. And here you were, after everything in El Nath, and I knew you'd feel like crap if I just went and died-"

"Damn right," she interrupted, sounding somehow very heavy.

I smirked for a second, but what I was saying was heartfelt and it did not amuse me for long.

"Died without saying anything I wanted to say, anyway. I wanted to tell you that I did care about you, _obviously_. I cared so much that I worried about it. I cared so much that I decided if I got out of death somehow and if you were still as I knew you, then I would tell you. I decided I owed you that, at the very least, and from what you said happened after Renon's attack lead me to decide that you deserved far more than just that." I looked up for the first time and found that she was tearing up.

Again.

…Wait, that wasn't what I wanted at all!

She must have noticed my discontent because she sniffed, and I noticed she was smiling, and she almost fell onto me, hugging my midsection.

"Er… I…" I couldn't think of anything else to say or do, except rub her back a little bit. She spoke instead, and I noticed she was sobbing a little.

"I couldn't stand it," she cried. "I couldn't stand it if you died. I decided-" Sniff. "I decided it would be okay if you woke up but you didn't want to be my companion any more, or be my-" Sniff again. "My friend any more, or even want to see me any more. I was afraid you'd be mad at me for saying what I did. I really didn't want to put you into that position, since you're always so calm and logical and you even _said_ you would never date a training partner or anything, and I knew it was a hint, and I was so selfish…"

All was silent for a few seconds and then we both apologized at exactly the same time.

"Hold on," she sniffed, before I could say anything else. "What are_ you_ sorry for? That wasn't fair."

I smiled and brushed a strand of hair from her eyes. "I'm sorry for being so blind," I said meekly. "I've always lived with my own rules, and one of those major ones is to never show any weakness. I somehow nudged my way into thinking that relationships were weakness-"

I paused, careful to be sure I wouldn't say too much. I knew exactly how I 'nudged myself 'into that mindset, but it was nothing I cared to talk about right now.

"What is it?" Allie asked quietly.

I waved her off with a small smile. "Reminiscing on my past stupidity."

Her eyes questioned for more information, but I kissed her forehead and she relaxed. I felt guilty for using an underhanded method of reverting her attention, but when she kissed my neck I became aware that there were more positive motives involved.

I held her close and let me tell you, we enjoyed our first twenty-four hours together.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

I groaned. My back was aching and my arm was asleep. What time was it…?

It was dark, but I could see that the short hand on Allie's wristwatch was pointing somewhere between Two- and Four-o'-clock. Ah, that's right, she'd wanted to go to sleep. And then she decided it would be a good idea to use my arm as a pillow. I couldn't help but smile at her. So sweet, so innocent in sleep. If you've ever watched a loved one sleeping, especially if they're just falling asleep, you know of the joy it brings to one's heart.

Careful to set her head down on a firm pillow, I stood from the couch. I could have stood and gazed upon her beauty all night… But I did not linger, as my feelings of voyeurism sent guilty thoughts to my brain. Anyway, that'd be pretty mushy for me. I adjusted her blanket and stepped out of the bedroom, grabbing my shirt on the way.

She could sleep for as long as she wanted, I didn't mind in the least. However, I had a feeling that I'd have quite the case of insomnia for a while. What was it, a hundred hours of fatigue– and drug-induced sleep can do that to a man.

For a while I just walked around quietly, gathering the bearings of this house. I checked in on Allie fairly often. I couldn't help it. She was just so cute.

I considered going outside again when my pants started to vibrate in her room.

I quickly and quietly dug out my personal ID Card, checked to make sure Allie was still sleeping, and then sat in the loveseat in front of the fireplace to check my mail.

It was from Renon:

"hey mate

me n hamina are doin fine, we just got off the boat to viccy from orbis. hidevals hiding in deep sleepywood, so it'll b a few days be4 we can meet up agin. im not sure wut time it is 4 you, hamina sed like 4am? its morning here so feel free to beep me if u need 2 talk or nething

-renon esper"

I frowned at the half-assed typing, but replied all the same.

"Hoy.

Yeah, it's 4:30AM here, but you didn't wake me up, so don't worry or anything. I think we'll be fine, I mean, I know I feel great. And Allie's perfect, she's sleeping in the other room. I'll probably make a trip or two to Nath for food, but besides that we'll just hang out here until we receive further notice. Send me a message if anything happens, okay?

-Dan of Kerning"

I didn't like to sign things with my last name unless they were official. No need to, you know?

I checked out my inbox to make sure I didn't miss anything.

"_You have (8) New Messages._"

I sighed. That wasn't terrible.

One was inappropriate junk, another was a humourous forward from The Just Owner comparing Thieves and Archers, and there was some spam. One message was from a girl whom I'd never heard of, asking if I needed my Level Forty Equipment yet. I was about to open that one when I noticed that Conlan had sent me something.

"Dan,

Long time no see, it's Conlan. I hope you've been looking after yourself, and that you are recovering well after what I heard Esper did to you.

Before you start asking how I know that, I ran into Hamina and Esper not too long ago while I was staying in Orbis, they filled me in on what happened to you. Actually, they told me a lot about what has happened to you and Allie the past couple of weeks. Why didn't you tell me about Hideval at all? You, of all people would know I would want to help any way I could.

Ah well, what's past is past, right? No point worrying about it...

Anyways, I'm not writing this message to chaste you about not telling me about such things, there's something I want to discuss with you.

I heard that Hideval's problems stem from that of owing a debt to Maffiya. And if it's all heads and tails with you, I'd like to meet up in Orbis and exchange information. I have reason to believe they are behind something that has recently happened to Lyo. I would go more in depth, but I'd just as soon do that in person, you never know who's reading these things.

Well, it's best I go, the doctors are coming back with the report on Lyo's current health.

Take care, and get here as soon as you can,

-Conlan L. Kempner"

_That doesn't bode well at all…_

"Conmaaaan–!

Good to see some sign of your survival. Er…

Not to be blunt or anything, but what's happened? Is Lyo okay? Are YOU okay? And how was the Maffiya involved? Don't leave me worried about you two. D:

I probably would have told you about Hideval, but with the conflict with that retarded Spearman and getting Allie her armour my mind was off-track. I would have probably told you if you hadn't run off so soon. :(

… Wait, you need me up there? Um… It's like not even five in the morning right now and Allie's asleep. We're still in El Nath, btw, so yeeaaah. I guess we could be up by late-ish (maybe 12 hours from now?), since you need us. I'll just tell Renon to meet us there.

Ooh, but the Maffiya might be on the lookout for us… So we'll be incognito: Don't repeat it, cuz these lines are unsafe, but I'll be wearing those special shoes of mine, and I'll be wearing that _thing_ you gave me when we first met. You remember the one, I hope, the one I've been carrying since!

So yeah, just tell me whereabouts in Orbis you are whenever you get this. We'll be on the way to the tower as soon as Allie wakes up.

Seeya then.

-The Dan

PS: You were wrong, Conman. While she is a tad promiscuous, I doubt she'll want to birth _both_ of our children.

PSS: Take that hint at face value. D: "

I couldn't help but put down the post-scripts. If anyone needed some cheering up, it was Conlan. Still, I couldn't help but wonder what it was that happened. If Lyo was under the care of doctors, it didn't look good. She was a cleric, after all…

I wrote up a quick new message telling Renon that we'd be in Orbis, sent the messages, and closed my Inbox to check my personal statistics. Apparently I'd leveled up to 40, and my level of Fame had been jumped up by three. I'd have to thank those guys later.

For now, though, I was worried. The Level Forty equipment, while excellent as well as sexy, was expensive and fairly hard to find. I already had a rare Dark Pilfer, the hat for the outfit, but it was in my pack, which was near Allie. And then I remembered that if we were gonna just save Hideval we really didn't need to pay all that money to the Maffiya. It seemed that our bank accounts were about to leap, so I sent a refund to the Just Owner explaining why we didn't need his charity any more (with a quick thanks, of course).

So I was bored again. I sent messages to old friends throughout the land, but I didn't get any replies. Most of them were either in Orbis or Ludibrium, meaning it would be a dead hour for them. It was two hours ahead of me in Victoria, and an hour behind in Ludi.

Besides that, there wasn't much at all to do. I silently tidied up the house and packed up our belongings, careful to be quiet. There was a female assassin occupying one of the rooms, and she seemed the type to rip my head off if I either woke her up or got too close to her door. Needless to say, I made sure not to stray towards that area.

Silently as possible, I placed item after item of ours onto the couch. Eventually I made an extremely stealthy little mission into Allie's room, where I grabbed my pack and all of her dirty laundry. Honestly, the girl was a mess.

I tossed it all in the washing machine, being careful to follow the directions on the detergent bottle. Laundry wasn't so hard, I supposed. I set the timer and stepped outside for a little.

The sun was only just rising. It cast an orange glow over everything; The snow and frozen droplets on the trees glistened with a sparkle not unlike a Holiday Greeting card. Quite a picturesque moment indeed, and I allowed myself to stare around for a good while. Eventually I started playing with the snow in my hands, making hard-packed snow shuriken or regular snowballs. I began throwing them at trees, and then trying to judge and manipulate the ricochet to hit the trees I'd mentally mark. It was a little game I used to play in the fields south of Kerning with sticks or rocks.

That was when they decided I would make a good assassin…

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-

"Damn it," I hissed. The thin, round rock veered off to the side, bouncing off the back of a large Orange Mushroom. It turned around, a stupid-yet-furious look on its odd face. Mind you, I was only nine, so that look scared the shit outta me.

I ran away for a second, but on the way off realized I had nowhere to go to. By the time I reached that rope he would be on top of me, and there was no way I could make the jump to that platform over there… It seemed I would have to stand and fight.

There was a distinct sound of a sharp object embedding itself into the monster. I turned in time to see the Dark Lord glaring at me.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he asked me quietly.

"I was…. I'm sorry, I was just-" I stuttered. This guy had always creeped me out.

"How long have you been doing this?"

"Coming here?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Coming here with the intent of killing the creatures here," he said, tonelessly as usual.

"Uh…" I mumbled. "I dunno. A few months?"

He didn't reply for a few seconds. "Have you been sneaking out?"

"…Yes… I have. I'm sorry."

"Do you realize that people die out here?" he wasn't even yelling at me, which only seemed to hurt me more. "People five years older than you. You remember what happened to the one who called himself Lotus, right?"

I winced, and it was all the answer he needed. He seemed to smile under his mask.

"Do you want your body to look like that? Crushed bones, twisted legs… And his neck was at such an odd angle."

"You're enjoying this too much," I said rebelliously, though my stomach churned at the memories. The smile on his face seemed to widen.

"I do enjoy this," he replied coldly. "Coming out here only to see the village children running around this place like an idiot. I know you know you're not allowed outside of town. You're lucky I followed you, or you might be dead right now."

It was my turn to glare now. "I'm not as weak as you think," I almost shouted. "Just because Monster Control hasn't recognized me yet doesn't mean I'm not ready for-"

"Au contraire," he scoffed with a humourless laugh. "That's their job, you see, to tell me when they think another person is ready for enrollment."

"I'm ready."

He seemed surprised for a second, which only surprised me. "Are you?" he asked, apparently at a loss for things to say.

"I think so."

With that, I felt a hard hit at my shoulder. Another one of the Mushrooms had come to get us.

The Dark Lord simply disappeared from sight. I swore at him harshly, turning to face the thing alone.

It was taller than me and probably twice my body width. I didn't have a weapon, and this thing used its entire body as one. If only I were a Warrior, I could'a just tackled it and hit it really hard with my fists until it stopped moving…

I tried to remember my lessons as I quickly backed up. Self defense… Use what you have at your disposal. I studied my peripheral vision and saw nothing, so I put up my fists. Still no sign of the Dark Lord.

The Mushroom was coming straight at me… Just a second… The second it got into attacking range I let loose a backfist with my left hand, stepping to the right of it. I brought down my right fist hard onto its cap, and jumped out of the way. My momentum was opposite the Mushroom's, so as long as I didn't let it hit me again I could beat it. I could beat it alone.

I stood waiting, and then it came for me again. I was ready, doing the same maneuver and hitting his cap hard enough to leave a bruise on my hand. That technique wouldn't really work again.

The third time it tried to hit me I dived fast to the left, executing a right-roundhouse kick to its face. This seemed to phase it, but it only came at me faster. I waited, jumped, attacked. Four times now that I've hit it. Five. Six. Will it ever get tired?!

After both of my legs hurt from kicking this rock-hard creature, I started using my time in-between its attacks to scan the floor for weapons to use. And then it appeared: the Wolbi throwing star that had sliced through the first Orange Mushroom.

I waited for the Mushroom to come at me again, waiting, calculating, timing… And then at the last second I leapt and rolled out of the way, just next to the embedded shuriken. I yanked it from the ground and threw it hard at the monster. I missed.

"Throw it vertically, not like a frisbee," a voice said behind me. I yelped and turned to see the Dark Lord standing there, holding another Wolbi for me. "Quickly."

I nodded and took it, and threw it from next to my ear. My aiming marked true, and the star was the end of that monster's life. I let out a breath that I didn't realize I was holding in. I turned, smiling gratefully to the Dark Lord.

He seemed slightly amused, which would be similar to a normal man shouting and cheering like a drunk.

"Here," he said, holding out a little plastic container, half-full, of Wolbis. "These things'll do more damage than rocks, and they'll be more of a learning experience if you decide to go for long-range battle. From your techniques in punching kicking, I think that would be a good idea for you."

Mind you, that was really about as close to a blessing as it is possible for this guy to give.

"So you think I should become an Assassin someday?" I asked, surprised as anyone would have been.

"I've no doubt. Take the stars and buy yourself a Garnier Claw for them sometime."

"But… But," I sputtered, taking them with a blush. "I thought… Isn't that illegal? To give a minor real weaponry, I mean?"

"It is," he replied. "But I think you're ready."

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

I still had that set of Wolbis… With a strangely emotional feeling, I pulled them from an inner pocket and fed them into my old Meba. These were perfect for training: Cheap and easily refilled, but they were both thinner and easier to use than regular Subis. While a Wolbi left a gash on most trees, a Mokbi would get stuck in the bark and a Subi would simply bounce off.

Using snowballs, I marked three random areas in the forest. Opening my eyes, I saw exactly where the packed snow had hit the trees. They weren't at similar leverages, but it wasn't impossible. I surveyed the areas, letting my eyes scan all of the trees and branches, falling into that subconscious intuition that I trusted. After a second of thinking and positioning, I let loose.

The Wolbi flew in a slight curve upwards and to the right. It hit my first target perfectly, and bounced off into a standing rock. That lead it to its second target, but it flew a little bit too hard to the left after that and ended up losing all of its spin on a bundle of pine branches. I shrugged it off. Two out of three wasn't bad at all.

I kept doing this until the sun was above the horizon, and more importantly I ran out of Wolbis. With that I went inside and transferred all of the laundry into the Dryer and turned it on. After a few minutes of pondering, I began to make breakfast.

I found waffle mix in boxes in one of the cupboards, assuming that Renon or Hamina had bought them in one of their trips to El Nath. I followed the directions by the letter, hoping that it would assist my lack of culinary ability.

It didn't. Ten minutes into making the meal I was still stirring, and the damn water _still_ refused to mix.

An alarm rang somewhere in the house, and not three minutes later our third inhabitant came into the kitchen.

"T'cha cookin'?" she asked me.

"Belgian Waffles. I've got plenty."

"Eh, don' worry about it. I'm gonna set off. The Mine's a good journey off."

"Best of luck to yah."

She left. I kept stirring.

Allie woke up in the other room. Her breathing changed subtly and the bed and then the floor creaked successively. I continued stirring as she wandered around the room, assumedly putting on some dayclothes.

Stir. Stir. Stir. Clockwise, clockwise, turn the bowl… My arm was already kinda tired from throwing stuff all day, too.

"You need to use a whisk," Allie said coolly, with a hint of sleepiness. To be honest, I didn't hear her come up to me nor did I think she would have done so so fast.

I stared at her. "I knew that," I joked, putting the wooden spoon aside carefully. I grabbed the appropriate tool and set to work while she hugged me from behind.

"How long have youah-ahhh, ah, been awake, Danny?" she said through a yawn.

I said, "Not too long, but long enough to talk to Conlan via P-ID-Mail."

She said, "Oh, really? How is he?"

I said, "He's fine, but Lyo's… Hurt."

She backed off of me. "Is she okay?"

"To be honest," I said, looking right at her. "It doesn't seem so. She's a Cleric, and he said that she was under a doctor's care. He used it plural, actually, so I can assume she's in an emergency room of some sort."

"Oh…" she murmured quietly. "What else…?"

"Just that we're gonna go up to Orbis to see them."

She seemed surprised by that. "Today?"

"Yeah, today." The whisk was working, so I poured the mix into the old Belgian-Waffle Maker I'd pulled out from the depths of a closet. "I already Mailed Renon, so he'll know where to find us. Conlan said they met and talked, anyway."

She nodded. "So we'll leave right after breakfast? If I can keep up with you, and you're not lazy with your Haste, we could meet him by the afternoon."

"I told him to expect us at like five, so we don't need to rush."

"What about the Maffiya? They have members everywhere. We can't just walk out there, and since we've been with Hamina and Renon for so long they're bound to have us on file or something…"

I clapped my hands once together. "We're gonna play a little game of dress-up."

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-

"What is it with you and _pink_?" Allie asked, glancing at my tie.

"It reflects my personality so well," I sang, and she giggled.

I was wearing my hair slicked back with some gel we'd found in the bathroom, and a pair of blue-tinted rectangular glasses that were popular back when my and Conlan had first met. I was wearing a fancy black tuxedo (open) with a white button-up shirt and a pink tie that was absolutely perfect for me. I had black dress pants, black socks and of course, my Pink Whitebottoms. Allie, on the other hand, had found a set of Diao Chan clothes in what used to be Hamina's room, and I must say she looked quite stunning in that outfit. It wasn't very modest, though, and it didn't take long for her to convince me to lend her my jacket.

I prepared our bags and we set off. It was only noon. We'd be there soon, and then we could see Conlan and Lyo. And if there was anything I could do to help her, I would do so.


	11. Chapter 11

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. But if you, as a peer, want to use someone I created, you gotta ask first, mmkay?**

The character I roughly base this story on is a Lv. 48 assassin, named "TheDan" in Scania. Feel free to contact me, I'm usually not doing anything terribly important online and I'd love to see some peers or fans in-game! Sorry for the long wait, once again, but you know how it is. I don't really have a specific excuse, but I don't think it is a good idea to force myself to write, especially if I'm stressed out from Real Life stuff. And I remember reading that same line back a few years ago when I was reading Harry Potter and Tales of Symphonia fanfics, and saying 'ohmygod that is so bull you're just lazy'. And you know what? It's not bull, though I am lazy. C'est n'avoidable pas. D:

Also, I made a Guild with my good buddy Nick. We have an Emblem. It's called 'NEDM', which, for you uninformed, stands for 'Not Even Doom Music' and it is an online fad (creation of YTMND-dot-com) that is highly against teenagers setting cats on fire. Think I'm kidding? Run NEDM into your Google searchbar. Leeeeeaarrrrrnnn. Anyway, we need **active** _Literate_ members, any level. Scania, of course.

This chapter's plot was helped along by Sire Conlan himself, in the form of a little role play we'd acted just for this occasion. (See? I put you in the credits the first time around, this time. Hah! Lose, Sire.)

Also in this chapter, featuring my above-stated good buddy Nick as the infamous Albino Popsicle.

In other news, Conlan will be writing his own story soonly. It will take place (we presume) around the same time and place as the one you're reading presently, but from Conman's perspective. No guarantees that our fanbases will have similar interests in writing, but you should read it anyway because this guy is sexyhawt. Keep an eye out for a fanfic by 'Hid Lanef', and I'll have a title for you as soon as I can.

And now, the reader reviews thing:

-Crostini - Well, psh, threatening me is so gonna help. Bring it on, hot momma. And your little comment seems to be showing up more than once or twice... I don't know how I make it so realistic. Maybe it's just my personal writing style? Maybe I'm just awesome; We'll go with that. F2.

-Deviruchi - Ohhh, thank you. Also, don't rush genius. D:

-Hid Lanef - Es tee eff you, Conman. DDD:

-StargazerBlue - The real plot hasn't really reared its ugly head yet, I still need to give my characters personalities and explain the world they live in before I can get into it. Or are you saying my story has gotten you lost? By all means, contact me, I'll clear you up. I'm putting my IM names below, actually, because nobody adds me using the information in my profile. F4.

-Saiyuki Tasuke - Writing little romantic bits is a lot of fun, actually. Take it from Mr Sensitive, though, it's not easy. D:

-Master Cheif (And Arbiter? In one room? how can dis b?) - I'll get to it, and probably leave you a review before this chapter is even completed. :D -sweatdrop-

-Arthur Savorian - You need to be on AIM more often. D:

-Hamina-neesan - OMFG HAIIIIII(tilde)!

-ahem-

NOW

Read on to discover the secrets I may give you! But first, a follow up from the last chappie.

- (That was exactly 75 hyphens. I love this new word processor.)

"_What is it with you and pink?" Allie asked, glancing at my tie._

"_It reflects my personality so well," I sang, and she giggled._

_I was wearing my hair slicked back with some gel we'd found in the bathroom, and a pair of blue-tinted rectangular glasses that were popular back when my and Conlan had first met. I was wearing a fancy black tuxedo (open) with a white button-up shirt and a pink tie that was absolutely perfect for me. I had black dress pants, black socks and of course, my Pink Whitebottoms. Allie, on the other hand, had found a set of Diao Chan clothes in what used to be Hamina's room, and I must say she looked quite stunning in that outfit. It wasn't very modest, though, and it didn't take long for her to convince me to lend her my jacket._

_I prepared our bags and we set off. It was only noon. We'd be there soon, and then we could see Conlan and Lyo. And if there was anything I could do to help her, I would do so._

"If there is one true religion," I said, acting quite chipper, "It must revolve around Ilbis."

"Pshaw!" Allie said, turning to stick her tongue at me. "Surely it would revolve around the one responsible for _buying_ you those Ilbis."

We laughed and continued onwards. How she'd managed to get ahead of me, I don't know, and I didn't really care. I picked off two Junior Sentinels from my perch beneath Allie, ignoring the drops for now. They were hardly worth anything, and at any rate we had more important things to do now.

"You should give yourself more Haste," Allie complained as we both felt the effects of the spell wear off. "It doesn't really do much for me. I just feel a little more aware when you use it."

"It's only level two," I whined. "And I don't want to waste points on it yet. The Critical Throw thing is really helping me out. Most of these shots they're showing me can kill a monster in a hit. Sometimes two."

Allie nodded. "Actually, yeah. Archers have the same skill. Except, we got it immediately after becoming an archer, we didn't have to wait until getting promoted."

"We're not so different, you and I," I said in an unearthly tone. She rose an eyebrow. I casted another Haste and we kept moving.

_Floor sixteen_, I said to myself. _And it's not even four o' clock yet. We're making great time._

I jumped a separate way from a safe platform as Allie. I distinctly heard her crossbow twang in an odd manner as she fired what I knew to be a Double Shot. I focused my breathing and smiled a little, then unleashed a Lucky Seven on an unsuspecting little Sentinel. It was four quarters of a monster before it could even process that there was a second star behind the first.

The power! The rush of the hunt! I threw a star normally at another of the robots, admiring the quality of the eight-tipped silver blur.

Wait, silver? Hadn't it been an ironish colour, with a red ribbon trailing it? Or were those the old wolbis I got from the Dark Lord?

I seemed to have forgotten. No matter. Where was I?

Wait...

_Where AM I?_

A powerful smell erupted in front of me. It was as if someone had shoved my face into an open stomach of a decomposing corpse. I felt myself gag, but even when I breathed, I was only sucking in dead body. This smell, it was physical, it was all empowering, and it made me vomit.

I felt myself collapse to a side, felt that odd feeling of deja vu as I recognized the fact that the ground and my left lower body were in contact. I tried to breathe but it wasn't working; So I panicked and tried harder only to discover that I was throwing up.

Wait, I knew that I was throwing up, how did that happen.

I couldn't breathe. I tried to cough but it wasn't working. Why...?

Ohh, I was suffocating. The barf must have clogged my throat... Oh, come on! What a pathetic way to . . .

Elsewhere... No, not elsewhere, but also else_when_, in some time as well as some place foreign, I watched it all happen. All of it. Everything.

I watched a hairy and hump-backed woman, unclothed, pick up a fallen oak branch and continually fap an Orange Mushroom with it until she was satisfied. I watched a man who looked as if he had never trimmed his face in his life (which in fact, he hadn't), sit on a ledge and push large boulders onto the Copper Drakes below. I watched a tall, handsome man clothed in white and gold remove his bride's veil to kiss her for the first time as a married couple. I watched the same wife stare as the man threw dinnerware onto the floor and storm out. I watched and started to feel uncomfortable as if I wasn't supposed to be here.

The feeling doubled as the _everywhen_ brought me to where I was not. But then I was there, and yet I did not belong, and I did not belong, and it knew I did not belong, and yet I was _here and there at once. _I watched as the giant Golem known as Zakum brought down an enormous fist onto an unsuspecting mage. I not only watched but _felt_ as that mage was crushed, as each of my/our/his bones were crushed within a split second.

I realized then that I wanted out. I wanted to go back, where it tasted bad but Allie was there, and there was some sense of order. Here, it was pure chaos, and I could not stand it. We could not stand it, and we wanted out. We could not stand it.

We could not stand it, and so we left in a green flash.

"Hoy, milady, he is waking up."

A voice, slightly accented in the olde dialect of Ellinia, brought me from my stupor in the same way that an angry homeowner would pull you out of his daughter's room.

"Dan? Danny?"

That was Allie's voice, and I opened my eyes. Hadn't she been crushed by that Zakum...? Wait, hadn't I been crushed?

"What happened to the mage?" I asked, and then his name came to me. "What happened to Todd? Where's Todd?"

"Todd?" Allie and the random cleric with the accent said as one. And then he laid me back down. "Easy there, my friend, for you have sustained a great fall."

I made a sound somewhere between 'Huh?' and 'Ughhh,' as I realized what had happened. I'd had another one of those vision-things and passed out. I must have thrown up and lost my footing on a high platform at once.

"You're lucky this guy was on his way to Nath," Allie explained, jabbing a thumb in the cleric's direction. "He said you'd be okay... Are you?"

"He'll have an ache in the skull for a spell," the cleric said, helping me sit up carefully. He was wearing the standard level sixty-ish clothing: A golden Ankamoon and a Green Seraphim hat. His hair was dark and a tad long, but neat. He had fair skin and dark brown eyes, and carried a long Thorns. "But you will be good to go on your way as soon as your blood flow resumes its natural course. And, here, drink one of these." He handed me a bottle full of a clear liquid, and I sniffed it before carefully sipping it. It didn't really have much of a taste.

"Er, what is this stuff?" I asked.

"Water, my friend," he answered, looking at me humourlessly.

"Oh. Er, right."

I still couldn't get those thoughts out of my head, though they seemed to be dissipating as I tried to grasp them. I vaguely remembered a woman being married, and the whole thing with Todd. It was odd, I felt as if there were a sort of connection with both of them...

I pushed it aside for now.

"Well, thanks for that, really," I said to the cleric, offering him the half-full water bottle. "I guess I owe ya one."

"Oh, my friend, you can keep that one, by all means." He waved the water bottle away, and I pocketed it.

"Who are you, then?"

"They call me the Albino Popsicle, sir. And how shall I refer to you?"

"What?"

"Your name is What...? That is quite modern, sir, I suppose it is one of-"

"No, no, the name's Dan. I meant, your own name is kinda... Er..."

He smiled. "I like the word 'eccentric', personally. Albino Popsicle is a pseudonym."

"Oh, ri-"

Allie interrupted our awkward conversation with a shrill "Look out!" from the rope above us.

Before I could react, Albino Popsicle thrust his forearm, barely covered by a robe, behind him into the direct path of a Sentinel. Not a Jr. Sentinel, the real thing. These guys were dangerous. But Albino Pops- Okay, this is just silly...

But Albino (who mind you is not an albino), as he shall be henceforth referred to as, swatted the thing aside with his _bare forearm_ as if it were a green-shelled Snail. I stared in awe at his power, trying to figure out what he'd done, and Allie suddenly gasped.

"You- You're a Hacker!" she shrieked, and my stomach dropped in fear.

"I beg your pardon?" he said with a small, knowing smile.

"You! You're a lawbreaker!" she continued. "That is an accursed power, an ancient evil! I can't believe you haven't been thrown into jail yet; I thought they got rid of all of you!"

Now, Harnessing the Ancient Cheifs' Knowledge (known in speech as Hacking: H.A.C.) is widely known as a threat to humanity. At first, people will Hack for power or for money, for fun or for vengeance on others, for good or for evil, but in the end, in every occasion, Hackers are evil people. It is known by every child in every village, and Hackers are both hated and feared in every community.

"I must say, milady, your words do hurt me," he replied quietly.

Allie laughed fakely. "Don't try to play me," she said. "I'm not gonna be persuaded by a _Hacker._"

"I am not going to try anything," he said. "I will just be on my way. I do apologize for any bad karma I may have caused upon you, and I do not deserve your forgiveness."

"Damn right you don't," Allie snarled quietly. I could feel her becoming more relaxed and less afraid as Albino turned to leave.

"... Hold on a sec," I called out on a gut impulse. "You're not like the rest of them."

"How so?" he asked, turning his head halfway to look at me with one eye. "I am a Hacker. I studied the forbidden texts. I use my forbidden powers. If I am out killing Monsters, nobody else can do their jobs."

"Wait..." I said. "Just... I need your help. You see, my friend, his girlfriend was shot, and she's in a hospital, and surely you-"

"It would be suicide on my part to walk into a clinic," Albino said, looking the other way again. He continued off. "I may not be a selfish arse like the rest, but I am not stupid enough to turn myself in. Have a good day, and do not overwork yourself again."

"I wasn't overworking myself," I muttered to nobody. Allie and I didn't move for a few seconds.

"Come on," she suggested finally. "Lyo... Conlan."

"Right... Yeah," I agreed, and we continued up.

"So... What happened?" she asked, as soon as we were moving.

"When I passed out?"

"Yeah."

I didn't answer her. I didn't know myself.

Conlan was sitting outside of the clinic, wearing a pair of thick black sunglasses.

"Hey," I said. Allie stayed a few steps behind me.

"What do you two know about the Maffiya?" he asked casually, and stood up.

"What?"

"You heard me."

I rose an eyebrow. "How is Lyo?"

"Her heart gave out on the way here. They think the arrow had some sort of poison on it."

It took a few seconds for this to sink in.

"Oh my god," Allie said, stepping past me as if she wanted to throw her arms around him, but she stopped short a few feet in front of him. He didn't seem to notice.

"Now, what do you guys know about them?" he inquired again.

"What are you going to do, Conlan?" I asked, feeling small. "Were they involved...?"

He stepped past Allie and handed me a small piece of paper in a tidy scrawl.

"Lo;; yjr v;rtov. ;rsbr yjr Jimyrt.

Hry piy SDSP, Frny trsof.

-S"

I stared at it for a good few seconds. "Where did you find-"

"On the corpse of the guy who shot her. It says 'Kill the Cleric, leave the hunter. Get out ASAP. Debt repaid.' "

"From 'S', unless the signature follows the rest in which it's 'A' " I said, discovering the code at once. Using a keyboard wasn't new to me, so it wasn't hard to crack. "So.. You got him before I could get away."

"It only took a few Bomb Arrows."

"So you want revenge on this guy."

"He ordered Lyo dead."

I stared. "So what are you gonna do?"

"Get information and take him out."

"What, storm the Maffiya's headquarters?" said I. "That's suicide."

"Not if you know what you're doing it isn't... I have no intention of dying until I finish what I plan to do."

"And what is it exactly that you plan to do, then?"

"Oh, nothing _legal_, I assure you."

"You can't earnestly believe that I'm gonna let you do that," I grumbled, and stood up straighter. "Not alone, anyway."

"Uh huh. And if it does turn out to be a suicide mission?"

"Then I'd have to tell you to take some time to think before you do anything rash."

He shrugged. "So you've said it. Anything else?"

Something ticked inside of me. What he was saying was asinine, conceited... Selfish as well. To live for vengeance is not to live at all."

"Just that I don't think Lyo would be all too pleased that you'd want to throw your life away so easily for such a reason.

"Perhaps," Conlan replied acidly, "But I don't think she'd be all too pleased that she's _dead_ either."

To this I had no reply, and I felt my face get hot.

"That's not fair," Allie chipped in, saving me from utter embarrassment. "We're only worried about you. You should really take more time to think this through."

Conlan turned to face her, his eyes covered and unreadable. But Allie must have saw something there, for she stepped back and put a hand over her mouth.

"I'm afraid," he said in a bit of a reserved tone, "That by this point, your worry is wasted."

She wouldn't give up, though. "No worry is wasted on a dear friend."

But by now I saw what had to be done. I laughed once, startling Allie, and punched my Meba into my waiting palm (careful not to jostle the trigger). "I see. Now, is this thing gonna be a suicide mission or what?"

Conlan looked at me. "Only if I do a sloppy job, which I intend not to."

I nodded. "Still, one man can't really do all that much to an entire organization. I propose we gather some-"

"Who said anything about an entire organization?" he quipped. "I just want the head of one man."

"Oh," I muttered. "That 'S' guy?"

"Seems so."

A short silence.

"Regardless," I continued, "I've got a short agenda for now."

"I beg to differ. What about Hideval, hm?"

"He's safe and sound by now," I explained. "Renon and Hamina are probably with him as we speak. I can't do much for them, but I'm sure a bit of a distraction in the ranks of the Maffiya would be a nice surprise."

"Dan, listen to me," Conlan said, stepping forward with such a silent ferocity that my mind fell completely silent. "How much help, exactly, would you want for your revenge? What if it was Allie who was killed?"

"..."

I paused and closed my eyes, realized Allie wasn't breathing right. The scenario must have been getting to her.

I knew exactly what Conlan meant but to articulate my feelings would be to lose this, and to lose this could very well lose a friend. I felt ashamed of myself. Determinedly keeping my gaze away from Allie, I looked back to Conlan.

"I see your point," I said in defeat, and Allie stiffened further out of the corner of my eye. "Just..." I added in quickly, "Just don't you dare die, okay?"

He replied, "I have no intention to," and it seemed I had nothing else to say.

I nodded solemnly. "If that's the case, then good luck. Keep me updated."

"Right... Watch your backs," he advised, "For they like to aim there."

I smiled grimly, but Allie, apparently overcome by emotion, had stepped forward and embraced him.

"Be careful, okay?" she said after the quick hug (that Conlan seemed reluctant to return). She did not look terribly insulted, but more understanding, and her eyes glittered as if the tears had welled up inside of them.

"Hey, Dandan," Conlan said to me, hefting his pack as he prepared to go. The ship would be off soon, after all...

"Yeah, Conman?"

"Don't die before I do."

I smirked and clapped him on the shoulder. "And I'll say the same, thus sealing what we shall know as the Mortality Paradox."

And with two sides of dry, substanceless laughter, he was off to the landings.

"He seemed really torn up," Allie said later that evening.

"Oh yeah?" I said from the couch, letting my book fall forward in a loose grasp. "Considering what happened, Allie? I'm surprised he wasn't sobbing when we... Well, rather, I'm not surprised, but any other man should have been crying, if not sobbing, at around the time we'd gotten there."

"Yeah, sure, except he looked like he'd done a few hours of that while we were still in the tower," she replied, setting a mug of tea in front of me (I thanked her and stirred it slowly). "He was wearing those thick sunglasses for a reason, Dan."

"Oh," I muttered, oblivious, though it certainly made sense. "You saw when you hugged him, then, I guess?"

"No," she sipped her tea and looked at me as if I had two heads. "Well, I mean, yes, but I knew he'd be crying beforehand. All you boys are the same, putting on a mask of cold logic and uncaring, that apathy crap. But even with the strongest of you, it fails to mask true sadness."

I sighed, silently agreeing with her philosophy. "Regardless, he was really acting off today."

"Obviously, I'd _hope_ anyone would be."

"I know," I said impatiently, "That's not what I meant... I mean, most people don't just go out for revenge just like that. He really should have taken a few days to think, to grieve, before setting out with such a goal in mind..."

I fell silent and Allie didn't say anything. She didn't need to. We both knew that we were both thinking the same thing, and that was that we would have both done exactly the same thing in his place.

"Your jacket is vibrating," Allie exclaimed all of the sudden, and we both giggled nervously. She reached into the inner pocket (for she was still wearing it from the trip up) and handed me my Personal ID card.

"A message from Hamina," I explained, and she waved me on encouragingly.

I cleared my throat.

"Hideval's with us now. Poor bugger hasn't eaten in days, says he ran out of rations about a week ago. He's alive and healthy, though, a night's rest and a good meal and he'll be good as new. We're going to spend the night in Sleepywood and then go straight to Ellinia and then Orbis in the morning."

I paused.

"Is that it?" Allie asked after a few seconds.

"No," I said with a short laugh, and then turned off the gadget. "The rest was fluff, she went into detail about how glad Hideval was to see them, how he was bawling like a 'bloody Pomeranian, especially one giving birth'. "

We shared a short laugh and I sat back down and finished the tea over the course of the next quiet few minutes.

"Do you think Conlan will be okay?" Allie asked, breaking the thoughtlessness.

"I couldn't tell you right now," I told her, "But he's not the kinda guy to go down so easily. We shouldn't worry too much unless we don't hear from him."

"Okay," she said, and stood up. "Well, I got the bed last time, so I'll just take the couch. I'm tired."

The only room open in all of Orbis's overnight quarters was one of the smallest I've ever seen. It had two rooms: A bathroom and an everything-else room. As for sleeping, there was a small bed and a hard couch. We'd complained dearly when we'd first stepped in.

"I couldn't take the bed if I knew you'd be uncomfortable," I whined.

"The couch feels fine," she insisted, laying down on it (slowly and carefully) as if to prove a point.

"The couch wouldn't help your back, dear," I reminded her, "And I'm in perfect condition."

"That's a lie and you very well know it," she replied indignantly. "Your back looks like swiss cheese. Mine is fine, my aches are nothing new."

I shrugged. "I refuse to take the bed."

"Fine," she said, and threw the bed's pillow onto the floor, and then the top blanket.

"What are you doing?"

"If you won't take the bed," she explained, "Then you'll have to sleep on the couch. I'll be on the floor."

"Oh no you don't," I laughed.

Somehow we both ended up on the cold, hard, bare floor of this ruddy room.

But we still had each other... In my final waking moments before falling asleep, as she breathed softly from the crook of my shoulder, I realized how lucky I was and how grateful I should be.

Something was off, and I knew it.

No, it wasn't the hard floor giving me a crick in my neck, though that was indeed a factor of my discomfort. Something was _very_ off, something in my head, and I couldn't figure it out.

It was nothing obvious at all. I could not recall my few dreams from the two hours or so that I'd drifted off, and yet I felt a horrible sense of deja vu about them. That deja vu feeling, so nostalgic, was nothing foreign as of recent. I'd been getting it on and off since... Since that day that thing happened with the Jr. Grupins.

Were they related?

But that wasn't just it, either. Something was very off, and something was going to happen to us. I felt very wrong, very uncomfortable, in a mental way, the way we were laying down.

And I knew right then, with a sense of strange calm, that we needed to move right that second.

I sat up carefully and swiftly, sliding out of the blankets. Allie groaned a little, as her favourite pillow had just slid off and was now standing up.

"Whuhdizzit?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Nothing, Allie," I said, keeping my voice normal even though my eyes kept darting around (_to the window, it seemed?_). "I just realized what fools we were."

I saw her silhouette tilt its head, and I knelt down to scoop her body into my arms in the same fashion you see a new groom carrying his bride. She wasn't heavy, and I had strong arms, so I wasn't about to drop her or anything. But she did squeak for a second, made an odd little sound somewhere between 'I'm scared" and "I trust you" and "Hey, that tickled!".

I set her carefully on the bed, and then tossed the pillows and blankets next to (or on top of) her. On an afterthought, I leaned onto the bed and heaved.

"What...?" she said, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

With that thought, I explained, "I just think we should be sharing the bed instead of the floor... Er, that came out wrong. I mean, the floor is gonna kill both of our backs, the bed isn't, and we weren't taking up that much room-"

I finished pushing the bed, it was now adjacent to the far corner of the room.

"What are you trying to do, Dan?" Allie asked, awake now.

But something was still wrong. I tried to figure out what it was, and then tossed my Meba on the pile of blankets on the bed. I then decided that the room was too hot, and opened the window.

I then wondered why I did that, because it was freezing outside, but something in my head was telling me not to question it.

"Danny, what are you doing?"

Everything seemed about set. For what, I did not know. On the way back to Allie and the bed, I turned off the mana-powered nightlight (we were not uncomfortable in the dark, but Allie had insisted that she would be waking up early anyway and neither of us really minded the dim glow).

And then I felt calm, but there was still something to be done.

So I climbed into the bed to wait. Allie had pulled a blanket around her. "Danny," she whispered. "I don't know what you're doing, but I don't really fell comfortable... You know... With the bed and-"

"It's nothing like that, I assure you," I said, my mind on much more mortal matters.

"But..."

"Shh."

We were both silent for a second. I was listening for... Something. I didn't know yet. But something was about to happen.

"I think I'll just sleep on the couch, instead, if that's oka-"

And then I pulled her down, slipped the Meba on, and held her shoulders down.

"Danny?" she said, scared now.

"Shh, dammit, Allie..."

"I think I'll just go to the couch, Dan, really."

I put my hand over her mouth. "No, you won't," I replied firmly.

I'm pretty sure that was a mistake on my part.

She bit my hand and started to squirm. I was completely taken aback. I let go and she stood on the middle of the floor, turned, hands balled into fists. I stood up from the bed, dumbfounded.

"What the hell are you trying to do?" she whispered, and I could hear the tears in her voice.

I was silent for a few seconds, trying to figure out what was going on with her.

"...Oh. Oops," I said, when I thought about it.

"What do you mean, 'Oops'?"

"Allie, I'm not doing anything like that." And then an impulse hit me.

"Go lay down on the bed," I said firmly. And then I added, "Trust me."

And she did. She sighed inwardly and pulled the covers around her.

"No, let your hair show. Like, display it all over, as if you're showing off how long it is."

I could tell, though I could not see, that she rose an eyebrow but followed my directions anyway.

"Now lay down on the pillow and look at the wall. Pretend you're asleep, and don't break the act. Do not break the act until I tell you to. I'm gonna go stand in the bathroom."

She did. I did.

All was still for several minutes. I opened the door a few inches or so. Allie's act was quite convincing; Perhaps she'd actually fallen back asleep?

I reminded myself to apologize later for everything that just happened, though I was sure she'd forgive me in due time.

Voices, I just realized.

"-but where's the boy?"

Far away. The other side of the street, perhaps, outside of the window.

"It doesn't matter. We'll get him later. Or better yet, we can send him a finger and let him come to us."

Another voice, cold and unforgiving. It was very snakelike, if I had to put an animal on it.

The two laughed and the dialogue gave me that familiar sense of deja vu. I knew they were going to come in and try to kill Allie.

"No need to waste that scroll, then," the first voice said. "I'll just slit her throat and we'll carry her off."

I checked my Meba. Full of Tobis. So that's why I had this, eh...?

They quietly opened the door and even more quietly stepped in. A Warrior and a Mage of some sort. I couldn't tell what Levels, but you can always tell what class someone is by the armour. They stepped past my location and towards the bed, the Warrior pulling a small Field Dagger from his belt.

Mind, nobody was stealthier than an accomplished Assassin.

I cast a silent Dark Sight (and a Haste for good measure) and stepped out, leaving the door open less than a foot behind me.

The beauty of this skill, Dark Sight, was that I could generally make it so that if somebody knew I was there, and it was light out, I could make myself visible to them and just them. Unless Allie sat up, turned on the light, pointed at me and said 'That's Danny, he's using Dark Sight,' I was entirely invisible to these two men.

In the one second I had before adrenaline kicked in, I had to admire Allie's courage and trust. I'm sure she could hear what was going on, for as skilled as this Warrior was, it is hard to conceal the drawing of a steel blade. It was only on my actions, now, I realized, that Allie's life was leaning on.

No way in hell I could let that down, especially since she had been afraid of a rape less than ten minutes ago.

Before anyone could take another step, I let my instinct take over. Whereas my mind would show me the Critical weak points on a Mushroom or Drake, it showed me that there was a fairly large area between the Warrior's helmet and torso armour. A Tobi angled at one-eighty, going at anything faster than twenty-feet-per-second would kill him immediately. My average was around thirty, so that worked pretty well.

I hesitated for another second, and the Warrior made it all the way to the bedside.

The spring of power and adrenaline inside of me exploded in my fear, in the form of the swing of an Assassin's claw, a final gawk from a powerful Warrior, and the spraying of an odd pattern of blood all over a poor, timid Crossbowlady. Allie screamed, and I felt relieved that she didn't trust me _quite_ that much.

In a second, the Mage whipped around, and I had to give him credit. He was going to use his staff, but this I had foreseen. I had thrown the first Tobi upwards, and so my whole arm was raised above my head. In a tenth of a second I could attack 'on the rebound' (a term we'd used in class about swinging repetitively, up down and diagonally, in quick succession), and of this the mage was aware.

He did not relent his grip on the staff, though.

"These are Tobis," I explained, my voice shaking. "A Lucky Seven to the face wouldn't be something you're going to walk away from alive."

He snarled, "Better than becoming a prisoner to the enemy."

At least, he would have, but I had swung again before he could finish the last word. And indeed, a Lucky Seven would have killed him, but I aimed instead for his arm. One Tobi embedded itself in his left bicep, the other in his left forearm.

Luckily, he was not a Cleric, and luckily, he was left-handed. Turns out that that wasn't luck, but I'll get into that later.

"It seems, good buddy," I hissed, kicking him to the ground, "That you don't have a choice in this one."

It was on this day, I realized, that Assassins were proven the best of the classes. Using only a Level Twenty-Five Claw (equipped with Tobis), wearing naught but a pair of pink, silky boxers, I outsmarted and defeated a Warrior and a Mage, both of whom had more combat experience than me.

"That's unfair," Allie said when I pointed it out the next morning. "You defeated them, yeah, but you had a serious upper hand in that environment."

"I saved our lives!" I complained. "You'd best be grateful!"

She laughed, I laughed. She kissed my cheek. I stopped laughing and sat still, confused again, and then smiled. That was foreign to me, I suppose, but not uninvit-

The door of the room opened and the officer stepped in, looking as tired as we felt.

"We can't break him," he said. "He hasn't said a word to us. We want permission to... Well, use more orthodox torture methods."

Allie looked at me. She detested torture, and she made it known when the officer first suggested it. The entire room knew that lawfully, the Mage's fate was of my jurisdiction.

"Give him a few more hours," I suggested. "Could I come in for a minute to see?"

"Uh, yeah, sure."

So me and Allie stood from the hard bench (_surely the Government could do better_) and followed Officer Some-Archer into the Interrogation Room.

That Mage from earlier stopped laughing immediately when we came in. He said something very nasty to me that had to do with where I should go in the afterlife and what I should do to my mother when I got there.

We had a full rig set up. My goal here was to find out who attacked us and why (_the answers to which everyone knew and nobody could prove_), and of course Allie the Merciful just wouldn't stand to see violence here.

She forgave me for ending that Warrior, though; As did the law. Something about self-defense including friends and family (_As long as the law saw us as boyfriend-and-girlfriend, anyway. I was hoping for a bit more of a celebration in the official revelation of the title, but oh well._), and since I had roughly two seconds to act they expected no more from me. I considered that pretty fair.

Though I was never really a fan of torture, I was going to agree with it. What's one crony if it can give us a lawful standing against the Maffiya, anyway? Wouldn't that be some good for society, eh? Even the Officer (_Neekins, that was his name._) seemed excited at this, the possible genesis of their demise.

And, of course, Allie was in the back of the room, nearly in tears, standing there silently in her bedclothes plus my good jacket. I knew she couldn't stand to see me resort to such a thing, and I couldn't stand to not have her stand me, so for now I was very willing to resort to more merciful measures. Anyway.

We had a full rig set up. The nameless Mage was tied down at the waist, ankles, and wrists. We had two volunteers sitting next to his naked feet, armed with large feathers and attacking him with a sort of bored vigour.

"So," I said calmly. "We have ways of making you talk."

"What the hell?" he retaliated sagely.

"You got a name?"

"Seymore Asses."

I snorted. "Yeah, me too, but only for pizza delivery guys."

He didn't move. I nodded and the featherguys continued doing their jobs.

He grimaced and squirmed subconsciously, twitching a little.

"You got a name?" I asked again.

He broke out into laughter. "A name?" he coughed out. "Is that so important to you?"

"No," I admitted, and motioned for the featherguys to stop.

"I'm sick of this," one of them muttered. "Can't we just cut off some fingers or something?"

Allie gagged in the back of the room and I glared at the complaining officer. "Feel free to take a break, then," I advised. "I'll watch Mr. Asses."

Once I thinned the room to myself and the man (with Allie waiting outside the door), I tried again.

"Name."

"Screw off."

"Who was that Warrior?"

"Yo mama's boyfriend."

"Why were you in our room?"

"To rape your sister."

I paused, confused. "Er, my girlfriend...?"

He smirked. "Same thing, you freaky ass bitch."

I laughed. He looked at me weird, and then snickered. I made a quick, jerky movement forward, as if I was about to slap him. He jumped in his bonds and stopped smiling.

"Allie's the only one keeping the blood in your veins right now," I growled, flexing my Meba-ed hand.

"I don't care."

I pulled the trigger, softly and harmlessly releasing a tobi onto the man's shirt. "I'm about that far away from having her leave the building so we can deal with you."

"I don't care."

I laughed. "You've never died before, have you?" I dropped my voice, loosened my stance, and smirked a demonic smirk. This acting was a favourite intimidation tactic of mine.

"It's pretty bloody creepy there," I hissed, still grinning. "The shit you'll see... And nothing ever moves. It's all completely still. Nothing ever even nudges. Entirely silent, entirely still. You think torture is hell?"

A new look in his eyes now, fear. And I couldn't blame him. As far as he was concerned, I was a lunatic. And still, he said, "I don't care."

I glared. He glared back. I moved my face in, smirked my evil smirk. He spat in my face.

"Ugh!" Repulsed, I lost my balance and fell backwards, wiping the sour-smelling phlegm off my cheek and upper lip. I stood up and had every intention to bring a hard heel down onto his reproductive organs, but Allie burst open the door.

"Don't..." she whispered. Apparently she'd watched the whole scene through the small window in the door rather than sitting in one of the chairs. That I should have seen coming.

I stared at her for a long time, and my gaze returned to the damnable Mage. He was looking at Allie in with both fear and murderous intent shining through.

"Hold him back, you little bitch, or else you won't get your information, right?" he egged. She seemed to ignore his words, but turned a fiery gaze unto him. I flinched, but he didn't seem to notice her eyes. He was looking lower.

"Don't talk to me, you murderous scum," she said acidly, and I felt a ping of guilt, remembering the Warrior. Did that push me down to their level, all situation aside?

"Murder is underrated, you whore," the Mage said. "You've never felt it, have you? The rush, the hunt. That feeling of power when you are king over another man. When you have his life in your palm and it is only you separating his life from his death. And his death is always timely, and usually bloody... Oh, the best part is making a mess, really, and leaving a trail back to yourself for more victims."

Allie's eyebrows raised. A new look, of solemn pity. She slowly raised her left hand, palm up, angling it between her eyes and his.

"Your life's in my palm, and today I'm truly _Queen_ over a man," she corrected. "Danny's your King. But the Queen's the one that really rules, isn't she?" She smiled placidly. "Your death will be timely, and possibly bloody." (_By now I was beaming at the look on the Mage's face. Absolutely priceless._)

And then she turned to me. "I'm gonna go get some lunch in town," she said, her voice shuddering a bit. "Go ahead and make a mess, if you want to."

I laughed, she smiled, and the Mage finally lost some facial colour.

((Again, sorry about the wait. I was only going to have this be about half of the chapter, but the rest is taking too long to write. Expect Chapter 12 in less than a couple weeks.

Look forward to Hid Lanef's fanfic, it should - rather, it had better be up soon. D: ))


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